Homeboxes -Presented by Paper Monkey Theatre Ltd in collaboration with Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay as part of The StudiosBoxes, a medium that we use to pack our things and stack them away...with it out memories and unsettle feelings. Putting it all aside, we move on - out of sight, out of mind. Then one day, we chance upon these boxes. The memories and emotions that were carefully tuucked away surfaces uncontrollably. Carefully but with hesitance, we go through the cherished items kept within.
Through the voices of six actors, a collection of three stories will be shared as the boxes unfold stories of dreams that had been long forgotten, quarrels that were unsettled, hopes that were dashed and love that was shattered. This performance features puppetry, song, movement, drama and culinary as one complete experience while we take on a journey about the fragility of relationships with loved ones and feeling for these stories that is close-to-heart.
On the ninth of April, I went to watch Homeboxes, a play put up by a local theatre company. It was a cathartic experience indeed. The play started out with the 6 actors singing a medley of songs originating from the 1970's till modern day. It was not only fun for the audience to watch, but we could also tell that the actors themselves were having a ball. ( we found out later that the director put this sequence in to allow the actors to have some fun on stage.)
The stories dramatized by the actors were stories that the audience could definitely relate to. A mute man trying to profess his love, a young girl trying to achieve her dreams despite her father's objections, a daughter being embarrassed by her own mother, and a broken family. With the emotive performances by the actors, and the stark parrallels that the stories portray to our reality, it left the audience laughing in their seats, and countless others crying.
One interesting thing to note about this performance was that the stories were not performed in a chrnological order. Instead, the various stories were segmented into different parts and then distributed throughout the play. The one thing connecting one sequence to the next, was the same recurring symbol. The ringing of a telephone. And ironically, the caller was never revealed. I found later in the post show dialogue that the director deliberately portrayed the stories in this manner as he did not want the audience to be lulled into a sense of them knowing what was going to happen next. Instead, he wanted the audience to question, and in doing so, keep the audience interested.
Puppets was a major device used in this play, especially with the director (Benjamin Ho Kai Wai) being a puppeteer himself. I felt that it was simply ingenious how the actors were able to manuever the puppets in such a way that a simple emotion was able to be conveyed with a just a similarly simple movment of the puppet. Different types of puppets were used - rod, shadow, hand, human - showing the versertality of the puppetry device.
Homeboxes was indeed an enjoyable play for me to watch, especially since it was a relatable, amusing and heartwarming performance.
