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First multilingual play

Staged on 10 August 1988, Kuo Pao Kun's Mama Looking For Her Cat was Singapore's first multi-lingual play. Performed by the Practice Theatre Ensemble (PTE), the play harps on the theme of Singapore's multiracial, multicultural and multilingual society, brought out by dialogues spoken in English, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, Hokkien, Cantonese and Teochew.

Description
Kuo Pao Kun's Mama Looking For Her Cat was Singapore's first multilingual play staged by Practice Theatre Ensemble (PTE) on 10 August 1988, at the Singapore Conference Hall. It was the first play to reflect the reality of Singapore as a multiracial, multicultural and multilingual society.

Mama Looking For Her Cat (1988) is essentially a play about the breakdown in communication and the estranged relationship between a Hokkien-speaking mother and her bilingual-speaking children, who could only express their thoughts in English and Mandarin. It is the first multilingual play about the language barriers facing the different generations of Singaporeans. It was created through Kuo's workshops with a multiracial ensemble of 11, which included T. Sasitharan, William Teo, Verena Tay and Neo Swee Lin, names now familiar in the theatre scene as actors, directors and critics.

Thematically, Kuo was articulating the marginalisation of the older generations of Singaporeans because of Singapore's bilingual policy that began in the 1970s. The pragmatic decision by the authorities then was based on the perception that people could communicate more effectively using only one or two main languages. This, however, had enormous implications to Singaporeans. The aged, who could speak only dialects, are increasingly marginalised as the country phases out their language in favour of English and Mandarin. Grandparents and even parents have trouble communicating with the younger generation because of these changes in language trends.

Hence, Mama Looking For Her Cat is symbolically a social commentary on the language and cultural issues experienced by Singaporeans because of the bilingual policy. As language is seen as a carrier of a whole system of culture, there is concern that the official phasing out of dialects would slowly erode a whole personal and collective history of the older generations.

The achievement of Kuo's play lay in its integration of form and content. Theoretically, he used Brechtian and Eastern ideas such as songs and cross talk, and performance techniques pioneered by Polish director, Jerzy Grotowski, to demonstrate Mama's alienation from her children.

Conceptually, Mama Looking For Her Cat was deemed as the first truly Singaporean play as Kuo used several Singaporean languages: Mandarin, English, Cantonese, Teochew, Hokkien and Tamil, to reflect the multicultural and multilingual nature of Singapore. This was a significant departure from theatre's general perception of being a monocultural and monolingual enterprise. With his play, Kuo questioned the typically accepted notion that a genuine post-independence Singaporean theatre had to be an English-language one.

Impact
Mama Looking For Her Cat paved the way for the use and acceptance of Chinese dialects within the arts and entertainment scene. No playwright before Kuo had presented this undeniable and fundamental nature of a multicultural and multilingual society that Singaporeans are learning to adapt to. Since this seminal play, more multilingual plays and films have been produced to better reflect contemporary Singapore society.



Author
Nureza Ahmad



References 
Pao Kun pointed out language heartache. (1989, April 7). Asiaweek, 48.

Ho, S. B. (1995, June 27). A leader in the theatre scene here. The Straits Times.

Kaiden, E. A. (1998, October 7). Toy winds up for play. The Straits Times.

Lum, S. (1997, August 19). Glimpses of cultural roots in Geylang. The Straits Times.

Oon, C. (2000, January 4). Singapore theatre. The Straits Times.

Oon, C. (1998, October 7). Mama brought back dialects: Many voices make the Lion City roar. The Straits Times.

Oon, C. (1998, October 7). This time MRT is no more a hot topic. The Straits Times.

Take risks, go for a rock band instead. (2000, January 7). The Straits Times.

10 years of practice- and no letting up- PTE has wide influence through plays and educational reach. The Straits Times.

Wee, W. L. (1998, December 20). Has Spore drama gone parochial. The Straits Times.


Further Readings
Oon, C. (2000, December 13). Wanted: Good playwrights. The Straits Times.

Yeo, R. (2002, September 19). Kuo Pao Kun: Pushing the limits in Singapore theatre. Retrieved May 10, 2004, from archive.rsi.com.sg/en/programmes/comment/2002/09_19.htm

The information in this article is valid as at 2004 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.

Subject
Arts>>Performing Arts>>Theatre
Personalities>>Biographies>>Artists
Ethnic Communities
Theater--Singapore
Dramatist--Singapore
Arts>>Theatre>>Theatre direction and production
People and communities>>Social groups and communities



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