Except that this wasn’t a bold movie and it wasn’t the MTRCB at the receiving end of the protests. This was Rent, the Pulitzer Prize Winner and Tony awardee that has been playing to full enthusiastically applauding audiences at the Victoria Theater in Singapore.
Traditionally, Singapore theatrical productions are dependent on an imprimatur from the Singapore Arts Council, and media promotions from radio and television – all government run and controlled. Rent suffered the singular distinction of having all support withheld. Although radio and TV had started promoting the play, once the SAC imposed the R rating, they stopped all plugging, citing policy as a reason.
Rent has had to survive on word-of-mouth, most of which has been good, the support of staunch believers like Yahoo Singapore and DBS Bank, a cast that is giving the best performance every show (Tuesday to Sunday evenings, with matinees on Saturdays and Sundays), and a producer who believes in his product.
The banning has spawned a lot of discussion primarily in pubs, coffee shops where the young congregate, and on the Internet. It is significant that on Yahoo Singapore a single e-mail sent by Stokehouse stating, "Nearly fell off my seat when I found out that Rent is coming to Singapore! What in the world is happening? It should be banned. Rent glamorizes homosexuality – heck, just about every character is gay and has AIDS" resulted in a barrage of feedback enough to crucify him.
A sampling from Rachel, "It is people like you that make Singapore such a screwed up place to live in… Get your middle-of-the-road, government sanctioned, politically correct, ah-being butt out of Singapore and get a life."
From Big Giant Bug, "Yeah yeah, ban everything, why don’t we? We banned chewing gum, banned pointing the middle finger on the roads, for a while we banned long hair. While we’re at it, can someone please ban smoking and driving, since both of those things kill?"
We don’t know how much of the controversy has helped fill up the theater. If Singapore is anything like Manila, the more uproar, the better it is for the box office. Why, we know of some movie producers in Manila who would actually court being banned just so they could loudly protest and get the public to sit up and notice. And buy a ticket.
If so, the Singapore Repertory Theater is on the right track. And its artistic director Gaurav Kripalani is unperturbed by all the brouhaha.
Not that he didn’t foresee what was in store. At the helm of the progressive company for five of its seven years of existence, he must have known that the musical on the lives of a group of starving artists in lower East Manhattan with problems of poverty, drug addiction, AIDS and homosexual relationships would not exactly sit well with the predominantly conservative Singaporeans.
But he took a gamble. Perhaps he knew, and he was right, that there were enough young closet radicals in the population who would rally to the causes the musical espoused.
"I simply weighed the positive benefits against what could be deemed controversial," he tells us.
Gaurav saw the play in New York but wasn’t moved by it. While in Manila two years ago for the Singapore Repertory production of They’re Playing Our Song with Lea Salonga and Adrian Pang, he recalls being coerced to watch Rent which was being staged.
He came away overwhelmed. "There is a huge difference between the Manila production and that of New York," he says.
What he saw was heart. Beneath the lives in disarray, beneath the pain and the rebellion was the indomitable human spirit raring to love and be loved. And soon began negotiations between Manila Rent producer-director Bobby Garcia for bringing Rent to Singapore.
Not having seen the New York version, we can’t make comparisons. All we know is that we deliberately passed it up, opting for Lion King and Jekyll and Hyde. Like Gaurav, we reluctantly went to watch the Manila version two years ago if only for the sake of friends in the cast. And like Gaurav, we were mesmerized.
Ong Sor Fern, reviewing Rent For The Straits Times went even further. He found the predominantly Filipino cast superior to that on Broadway, favoring Rachel Alejandro’s Mimi, Calvin’s Roger, JM Rodriguez’ Mark to their New York counterparts.
Personally, we found the musical a triumph in ensemble acting. Rachel, Calvin, JM, Michael de Mesa, Jake Macapagal, Anna Fegi, Brendon Fernandez, and Pam Oei, as well as the chorus with special mention of Asha (a Singaporean of Indian descent who sang the solo in Seasons of Love, the part that made Bituin Escalante in Manila) blended perfectly on stage, and we are told offstage as well.
Meanwhile, Rent continues its run, extended from the original 13 shows until March 3, hoping to touch more people and deliver its message of love and hope.
Gaurav is confident things will change. "Five years ago, this play would have been banned outright. In another five years, there will no longer be an R rating," he smiles.
Singapore Repertory plans to continue its aggressive stance of making Singapore into a cultural mecca. More original pieces will be developed, says Gaurav, and more work brought abroad. As for the Filipino artists, it is clear that with their outstanding abilities, they have found a place in Singapore’s cultural life.
The battle for artistic freedom similarly continues. And given the spunk and determination of the Singaporean artist, there is no about that the dream of a Renaissance City for the Arts may after all come to pass.