Awakening At Esplanade

Singapore Huayi Festival 2013 invited the team of Awakening 賈宝玉 to perform their theatrical play in the Esplanade on the 15 – 17 Feb 2013.

My wife and myself attended this play on the first day of their performance. It is a fantastic play that modernize the novel “Dream of the Red Chamber” with beautiful stage effects. Hilarious jokes and singlish terms are also used during the show, which makes it entertaining and lively. There are also 2 huge screen, located at both sides, that displays real-time English subtitles. The sound system of the theatre hall exceeded my expectation. I thought the speakers might be those typical karaoke speakers, fortunately they are not. ;) Live singing performance from the protagonist, played by Denise Ho (何韵诗), was pitch perfect and the supporting casts also played their individual role extremely well.

There are a total of 20 plays. After the end of the 10th play, there will be a 20 minutes break. It is a good time to head to the toilet.

For myself who know nothing about “Dream of the Red Chamber”, this play does make the story “generic” for newbies like me. There are many meaningful paraphrases in this play, which describes the perception of life. Occasionally, artistic approach presented by the casts caused confusion in myself. Anyway, this is art.

Flyers found at the ticketing booth.