The Chair

A woman demands justice from the mayor as her husband holds her back / Photo: Bernie Ng

The Chair
Intercultural Theatre Institute
1 September 2023
Drama Centre Black Box
31 August–2 September 2023

An original piece by the graduating cohort of the Intercultural Theatre Institute, The Chair revolves around a seemingly nondescript town that is rocked to its core when James, scholarship recipient and pride of the town, kills a few children.

According to the law of the town, the execution must be carried out by the family of the victims.

A woman (Swathilakshmi Perumal) keen on revenge pressures her husband (Choy Chee Yew) to take on a role because he is a butcher. But despite him being adept at slaughtering chickens, he feels uneasy about taking a human life.

The mayor (Mika Oskarson Kindstrand) quickly absolves herself of the responsibility by claiming it is merely a duty for her, but it is healing and an act of justice for the others, including the wider public.

A recluse elderly woman [Cheng Kam Yiu (Yolanda)] has the unenviable position of grieving over the loss of her grandchild, while being the town’s appointed counsellor to the chosen executioner. Things take a strange turn when the butcher and her are chosen as the executioners.

James’s mother (Abinaya Jothi) struggles to make amends with the rest who have always shunned her as she works as a cleaner.

Throughout the course of the show, questions about the nature of justice are raised as the characters grapple with grief, anger, and guilt.

Tensions run high between the mayor and James’s mother / Photo: Bernie Ng

Unfortunately, this proved to be a tall order for the actors. We get enough from them to understand the plot, but not enough to sense that the characters are actually grappling with and trying to keep these emotions under control.

Given that this is an original work, it is puzzling as to why the young actors are given such overly demanding roles.

However, we are compensated with a good synergy in their movement work.

In one scene, the characters are frantically trying to search for the children in the river, depicted by just a black patch on the floor. As they tumble over each other, the characters take turns to raise up the children’s belongings. How the actors manage to hide and retrieve the props is a wonder to this reviewer.

The strong synchronicity between the actors’ movements and the sound (designed by Meng Jiaoyang) and lighting effects (designed by Faith Liu Yong Huay) also contribute to the simmering tensions which leads to a couple of climatic moments, signalled by perhaps an overuse of strobe lights.

The butcher mulls on the grave task ahead / Photo: Bernie Ng

Kudos to director Li Xie for pulling together the seemingly disparate elements of a sparse set (black patches on white floor); striking props by Puny Life Form (think a striking red telephone with cord that doubles as a noose while hanging on sharp hooks); and guiding the actors through the devising process to create a coherent world.

Despite the dungeon-like atmosphere, the consistency of the visual, audio, and performance languages allow us to buy into the idea of the characters being in an odd little town.

While I was not on the edge of my seat, The Chair still intrigues as one considers the nature of justice and how it should be meted out.

Other Reviews

“Review: ‘The Chair’ by Intercultural Theatre Institute explores the death penalty, justice and grief in a twisted small town” by Yaiza Canapoli, SG Magazine

Review: The Chair by ITI 2023 Graduating Cohort by Philippe Pang

★★★☆☆ Review: The Chair by Intercultural Theatre Institute by Bakchormeeboy

The Chair marks the debut of the 2023 graduating cohort of the Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI). An original work directed by Li Xie, The Chair raises questions on individual and collective responsibility, grief, and the desperate, at times absurd pursuit of justice in an unjust world. Who has the right to decide? When is justice served? What do we owe to each other in the balancing of scales?

I interviewed Li Xie and a few members of the cast to find out more about the show.

What is the devising process like? Was the theme of justice decided beforehand or did it evolve out of the devising process?

Cheng Kam Yiu (Yolanda): It is a collaboration between the director and actors. We first shared our views and interpretations of the script then put the imagination on the floor. From a common understanding of the content, we devised the score using different elements such as movement, sound, space, and object. The score became more detailed and refined throughout the process. There are multiple themes in the script while the actors are exploring their own characters’ journeys of dealing with grief and loss under an extreme circumstance.

As the students have learnt many performance forms and training systems, did you tap into their varied training as you direct the piece?

Li Xie: Yes, the most important aspect is how to bridge their varied training beyond its forms, to discover how all various roads lead to similar core essence in performance.

Meyerhold’s Biomechanics features quite strongly in the rehearsal process. Were there any interesting discoveries you had about the actor training system as you and your cohort worked on The Chair?

Choy Chee Yew: We trained intermittently in Biomechanics over the past three years and the production was an opportunity to put the training into practice. The principles of Biomechanics are actually applicable in all aspects of theatre-making, but as our training wasn’t continuous, it was noticeable that the principles were not as ingrained in some of our bodies as they should.

The rehearsal process made it clear that certain misconceptions of Biomechanics needed to be debunked. As a training system, it adopts certain stylised approaches to impart its principles, especially the etudes. However, this doesn’t mean that an actor trained in Biomechanics has to perform in a stylised manner like an etude. Even in a realistic play, the principles of biomechanics are still as relevant; precision, rhythm, clarity, efficiency, and the conscious use of the whole body in expressing intention.

During the devising process, there were many uncertainties, such as the understanding of the characters’ intentions and how to best use a very bare stage. At times, this resulted in a lack of clarity in what we were trying to express. We were constantly reminded to return to our truthful instincts to approach the character, and then to use the training principles we’ve learnt to deliver in the clearest and most efficient way.

What would an ideally just world look like?

Li Xie: This is a very difficult question which has no clear answers. Everyone’s ideal is different. It’s probably a world one never regrets coming into.