Growing up in a wayang troupe in old Singapore – with duck poop and sequins
Ad
CNA Lifestyle
Growing upwardly in a wayang troupe in quondam Singapore – with duck poop and sequins
Theatre director Goh Boon Teck and his famous Chinese opera star mother Madam Oon, whose story unfolds in Titoudao, think the days when they lived and breathed the stage.
Goh Boon Teck and his mother, Madam Oon Ah Chiam, whose story inspired him to write Titoudao. (Photograph: Goh Boon Teck)
13 Feb 2022 06:30AM (Updated: 18 May 2022 01:39AM)
Titoudao is a familiar Singapore play that's already had several runs through the years, but this calendar month, it will be making a foray into television for the get-go time.
Titoudao: Inspired By The True Story Of A Wayang Star is a series adaptation of acclaimed theatre director Goh Boon Teck's play based on the tumultuous life of his mother, Madam Oon Ah Chiam, who was a pop Chinese opera performer in the 50s and 60s.
The series, which stars Fann Wong, Andie Chen, Constance Lau, Lina Ng and Joel Choo, likewise offers a expect into Singapore's history.
When we met up with Madam Oon, who'southward now 77, she told us she'due south chuffed that Malaysian actress Koe Yeet, who plays her character, is "much prettier than I am".
Simply becoming a famous opera star was less nigh looks and more virtually determination and hard work.
Growing upward on a farm in what is at present the Yew Tee surface area, her parents had more children than they could feed, and she had to work for her keep. "My father didn't dear me – I wanted to go to school and study, just he wouldn't let me, even though he let my younger sister go," she shared.
THE ART OF WALKING SILENTLY
At the age of 14, she joined the Sin Sai Hong Chinese opera troupe and began earning her own keep. She started out doing odd jobs like washing socks and running errands. Then, she was immune to play not-speaking roles such equally those of soldiers, maids and eunuchs. Later, she progressed to learning fighting moves and how to wield a prop gun. In the mornings, she'd become upwards and exercise "yun bu", the fine art of walking without a sound.
The stage life appealed to her, and she wanted to be a star. "They looked so beautiful with their outfits and makeup," she recalled.
Amongst her illiterate peers, she proved to take a knack for memorising scripts, and it wasn't long before she became a prima donna. "People really liked me. They would bring together hands to preclude me from leaving later on a performance," she said.
"Temples would request for me to perform at their events, and if I couldn't arrive, they would pay less for the booking. When we travelled to Malaysia to perform, audiences would ask for me. One twelvemonth, I had a sore throat and couldn't go, and they fabricated a fuss."
A LARGER-THAN-LIFE CHILDHOOD
Madam Oon's life as a performer became so all-encompassing that even while she was pregnant with Goh and his older sister, she was nevertheless working the phase, "climbing up and downward and performing stunts".
"While she was pregnant, she continued performing, then I was already on stage pre-nascence," Goh quipped. Equally a baby, "I was the kind of child who would cry if she wasn't in sight. So I was always there (at the opera) up until the age of six, when I had to showtime schoolhouse and could only go afterwards classes."
It was an unforgettably rich childhood, he recalled: "All the colours, all the sequins, all the activity – it was just so much larger than life. There was so much excitement every nighttime. It wasn't a boring babyhood playing brawl or bubbles. Information technology was beyond that. In that location was ever something going on, some festival, a lot of aunties and uncles, lots to swallow, and lots of friends of the same age, because other members of the troupe had children, also. I loved encountering different stories all the time. It was enchanting."
"He would say he wanted to be on stage," Madam Oon recalled, so, she made him tiny costumes. Every bit a piffling male child, Goh said, "I had to cross dress all the fourth dimension. She'd sometimes brand me perform as the maid of a rich lady. I as well had to play eunuchs."
Once, "a fellow member of the audition revealed himself to exist from the Ministry of Manpower, and they took u.s. to chore for child labour. I was so scared," Madam Oon said. "We were all really playing, for fun. Nosotros didn't receive wages. Merely the MOM questioned her," Goh said. In the finish, "It was just a alarm – zilch happened."
WHEN DUCKS INVADE THE STAGE
A more than real and present danger was perhaps Goh's ain mischievousness. "There were ducks under the phase, and I would tell him to be careful not to fall because in that location was a lot of duck poop – but he would do it anyhow," Madam Oon said. "I had problems following instructions!" Goh laughed.
Once, when he was five, while on bout in Batu Pahat, Malaysia, Madam Oon said, "There were bee hives nether the stage and I told him he wasn't allowed to go at that place in instance he got stung. He waited for me to keep phase to perform before he went. He was stung all over and cried a lot. It was dark, in that location were no doctors and I didn't know what to do, so I but put medicated oil on his confront. Back then, we had cipher and we never went to the doctor."
In spite of that incident being one of his nearly vivid memories, his childhood with the opera troupe left a deep impression on Goh, now a much-lauded playwright, manager and designer who credits his beloved for the stage, drama and writing to the nurturing influence of his mother and her arts and crafts.
"It was inherited and unknown until I worked in contemporary theatre, with The Theatre Exercise and Kuo Pao Kun, and so I realised that it felt and so familiar," Goh remembered. "Before that, I actually idea I was going to be a visual artist or a tenor – I wanted to train as a classical singer. When I started doing theatre, all the passion just came (over me)."
That chapters for artistry, he said, is thank you in function to a childhood that was "very vibrant, extraordinary, with everything larger than life... It was a very rich heritage and culture that I grew upwards with."
Titoudao: Inspired By The True Story Of A Wayang Star volition be available for gratuitous from Feb 18 on Mediacorp meWATCH (formerly Toggle), as well every bit every Tuesday at 9.30pm on Channel 5.
Contempo Searches
Trending Topics
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/entertainment/titoudao-tv-series-wayang-chinese-opera-singapore-175381
0 Response to "Growing up in a wayang troupe in old Singapore – with duck poop and sequins"
Post a Comment