On the dark of the 28th of November 2013. I had the opportunity of ticker some of the 3rd twelvemonth Lasalle theater pupils produce and perform Michael Christofer’s “The Shadow Box” . Despite holding really small cognition of the drama itself. I exhaustively enjoyed the drama and was kept engaged throughout. “The Shadow Box” revolves around three chief terminally sick characters. Joe. Felicity and Agnes. who had to cover with the fact of non being able to populate much longer. It besides involves their household and friends confronting the inevitable decease of their loved one.
The drama addresses the subject of decease and the thought of prehending the twenty-four hours and populating life to its’ fullest. otherwise known as ‘Carpe Diem’ . Keeping within the genre of pragmatism. the drama uses dark comedy to stress and heighten the message of the drama – ‘to grab onto life and populate it with all your might’ . The drama was held in the Creative Cube and the infinite was set up with blocks of different highs. separating the three single infinites. every bit good as a void-like section placed halfway up-stage. The infinite showed the bungalows of Joe’s. Brian’s and Felicity’s. from phase left to present right severally.
The void-like infinite had a swivel chair with a limelight on it. During the drama. the different characters had a opportunity to sit on the chair and discourse their current state of affairss with legion voices that encouraged each of them to show their emotions. This gave the audience an penetration into their personal feelings and ideas of their status. Even though the set was non precisely the most excessive. it had basic set pieces such as a sofa and a tabular array that made it unambiguous to the audience that the drama was set in their bungalows.
I felt that the set was adequate to inform he audience of where the drama was set in and what truly mattered was the content and playing of the drama. What had kept me engaged was how strong the relationships between the characters were and how I as an audience member could so clearly see each character’s development throughout the drama. I could really see how each character grew from being about angry and confused of their inevitable decease. to turning to accept it.
The show began with Jordan Prainito. who played Joe. walking into a nothingness and being questioned by several voices about his household and his day-to-day modus operandi of all time since he began populating at the bungalow. It wasn’t made clear to the audience who precisely the voices belonged to. nevertheless I got an feeling that they were physicians and it seemed as if it was a day-to-day or hebdomadal modus operandi to speak to these voices. The other characters underwent the same thing and as I have mentioned before. it gave us an penetration into their personal emotions and their sentiments of the whole state of affairs.
The relationships between the different characters were so good established that made the drama highly capturing to watch as you could besides see the personal battle of each character easy losing a loved 1. My favorite relationship established within the drama would hold to be between Felicity and Agnes. played by Rachel Tay and Samantha Jean Kwok severally. They played a mother-daughter relationship where the girl. Agnes. had to take attention of her terminally ill female parent who seemed to hold a side status of dementedness.
You could see how patient Agnes had to be with Felicity. and how she had to remind her female parent of basic things. such as the day of the month and clip. to somewhat more serious things. such as who Agnes was. as Felicity had a mentality that her other girl. Claire. was still alive and was taking attention of Felicity alternatively and non Agnes. My favorite character would be Beverly. who was played by Chinie Concepcion. She was moving as Mark’s ex girlfriend. who was the terminally sick patient in bungalow # 2. Mark. played by Renfred Ng besides had a cheery spouse. Brian. played by Brett Khao.
Together. Beverly and Brian fought and worked together to get the better of their fright of losing a loved one so shortly. As they had contrasting personalities. Beverly’s being loose and unworried. whereas Brian was stiff and edgy. this created an interesting section to watch on how the two had to work together for Mark’s interest. Chinie Concepcion brought so much life to her character and did a truly good occupation of portraying her character as the ‘life of the party’ . or instead life in general ( She besides rocked her sparkly 6 inch heels throughout the whole show ) .
Each relationship played throughout the show was kept existent. distinguishable and highly powerful. It made me experience about connected to the characters who had to confront the expected decease of their loved 1s. I particularly felt this from the relationship between Stevie. played by Kimberly Chan and her male parent Joe. As we saw the first meeting between Stevie and her male parent. you could about experience her exhilaration and joy resiling around the whole infinite. This was seen through her facial looks and avidity to do him proud through her vocals played on the guitar.
However. she had non known of his coming decease and it was the biggest bomb dropped throughout the whole show. As each relationship and character had their good points. it made the show gratifying and prosecuting. Thus. I felt that the 3rd twelvemonth Lasalle pupils did Michael Christofer proud as doing this the Singapore Prime Minister of ‘The Shadow Box’ . Everyone should decidedly take some clip off to catch the drama. it was highly traveling and challenging every bit good as it made me believe about truly populating life to it’s fullest and how true the look ‘Carpe Diem’ was.
