Writer: Chia Hui Min
Editor: Jonathan Chan
On 30th and 31st January 2009, KEVII Hallplay staged Pygmalion at the University Cultural Centre and both were nights of wit, humour and truckloads of laughter. Pygmalion, which was probably an unfamiliar term to many people initially, is the name of a Greek legend’s sculptor who carved an ivory sculpture and fell in love with it. KEVII Hallplay adapted George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion’ and staged this hilarious play to a full house last Friday and Saturday night.
Hallplay 08/09 - Jubilant after 2 nights of resounding success
At 7pm on Friday night, people streamed in as the theatre doors were opened, all eager to grab good seats for the play. Many went straight for the middle rows which would allow an eye-level view of the cast and the set. Hallplay members decked in Pygmalion T-shirts were spotted in the audience too, waiting to enjoy their fruits of labour. The show began with Hong Ju and Ginny being the emcees for the night, introducing us to the storyline of the play. Before the play started, a video was shown, depicting the hard work and all the efforts put in by the different ‘behind-the-scenes’ departments from Hallplay, for example Tech Crew, Set Builders and Stage Crew. Familiar faces were spotted too! After the video, Pygmalion finally began.
Wonderful emcees Hong Ju and Ginny
The story of Pygmalion goes like this:
Eliza Doolittle (Bridget Shoo) is a common flower girl with a Cockney accent that mangles the English language. On a cold and stormy night, she caught the attention of Henry Higgins (Collin Ho), who is a phonetics professor. He made a bet with a friend named Colonel Pickering (Nicholas Ng), that he would transform Eliza into a duchess and bring her to the ambassador’s ball in just 6 months’ time. The twist comes when Higgins eventually developed affections for the woman whom he transformed. Other characters to note are Mrs Pearce (Priya Jayaprakash) the housekeeper, Mr Alfred Doolittle (Low Jia Hua), Mrs Higgins (Nanthini Pillay), Mrs Eynsford Hill (Melody Long) who is Mrs Higgins’ friend, and Freddy Eynsford Hill (Hee Li Heng) who is a dashing young man nursing a crush on Eliza. In the second half, Aristid Karpathy (Nivedh Dinesh), Higgin’s best student and a phonetician, and the Ambassador (Chia Jia Yan) made appearances.
The stellar cast
The cast certainly peaked on Friday night, with excellent performances coming from all of them. There were many moments in the play when the audience bellowed in laughter, with much of it coming from the supporters of the cast. For example, the scene when Freddy tried to present flowers to Eliza but kept being barred by Mrs Pearce drew united “Awww”s, and the audience also erupted in laughter when Higgins imitated Eliza’s ghastly howls. Other highlights of the play included Pickering getting rejected by Mrs Pearce after giving her a flower, Eliza wearing a kimono and bowing with a “Phwah!”, and Karpathy’s hilarious accent. Overall, the cast did an amazing job portraying their emotions, tickling the audience and of course, bring the characters to life.
Certainly one of the best-remembered scenes of the play
The cast were not the only ones who shone on stage. The sets were definitely fighting with the cast for the limelight, as they were beautifully made by the Set Builders and Set Decor members. One of the most amazing things about the set was that it was a revolving one, and the transformation from Higgin’s house to Mrs Higgin’s house, and then to the ballroom scene, can be witnessed when the Stage Crew was efficiently turning the set. Much of the set was handmade, like the bookshelf and the books, the gramophone and the paintings on the walls. The most talked-about prop was definitely the chandelier, which lit beautifully during the ballroom scene. Many people could not even believe that it was totally handmade! The ballroom scene itself drew applause and cheers from the audience for being so grand and magnificent, what with the flight of stairs and the draperies coming down from the flybars. Much of the effort put in by the Set Builders and Set Decor certainly did not go to waste.
A ballroom designed and built from scratch
Costumes also played an integral role in the play, with many lovely costumes that were painstakingly sewed by the Costumes Department. Other than those worn in the ballroom scene, the rest of the dresses were handmade and designed by them. The effort taken to do so was shown in the beautiful patterns and the intricacies of the dresses.
Eliza's pink dress shows off the incredible skill of our Costumers
Another very important aspect of the play was the lights and sounds done by the Tech Crew. The ballroom scene was introduced with beautiful pink-ish lighting that shone on the cyclorama. Freddy’s earlier-mentioned scene with Mrs Pearce was also well coordinated with the lights and sounds which aided in the hilarity effect. The music used in the play was also very apt, portraying the different emotions at different scenes.
The success of Pygmalion is a testimony to the hard work and efforts put in by the every department of Hallplay. The play and witty script was received with loads of praise and definitely applause, and that surely made the hours sacrificed in Hallplay worth every minute. Kudos to the Hallplay team, and we will be looking forward to even better plays in the future!
See you next year!!
KE7 News 
Recent Comments