Welcome to my [[twine]]-review of TheatreWorks' <i>The Reunification of the Two Koreas</i>, a performance written by Joël Pommerat. The piece was translated into English by Marc Goldberg and directed by Jacques Vincey, which ran at 72-13 from 1 - 11 November 2018.
Here, you are free to [[linger]] and wander as you wish. Click whichever highlighted word you [[desire]], read in between the lines to your heart's content.
This is a simulation of a relationship under the guise of this web browser. As with any relationship, you have the option of jumping right to the end and have [[instant gratification]].
You have free will [[here]]; nothing is stopping you from [[closing]] this window. Take however long you want. No one is watching here.
You are rather free to do as you please. These text threads converge and diverge according to what you pick. Unlike <i>Reunification</i>, there is no loud clang of metal (courtesy of sound design by Bani Haykal) to mark a change in scene.
Just a soft [[mouseclick]].
You have free will [[here]]; nothing is stopping you from [[closing]] this window.But [[stay]] with me, won't you? Let me tell you about <i>The Reunification of the Two Koreas</i>, on your own [[terms]].
Now you tempt me. Do I respect your decision, or shall I try and convince you to [[stay]]?
It's a scene, oddly tender and sterile in the cold steel that frames the black stage.
Played by Pavan J Singh and Karen Tan, a couple meets each other as if the [[first time]].
The presence of choice you have is not so much different from the characters of <i>Reunification</i>. Characters [[choose]] to stay together or leave, [[forgetting and knowing]] each other over and over again.
There are 20 vignettes presented over the course of 2.5 hours. Each vignette is barely 10 minutes. Each vignette contains a glimpse of how [[complicated]] relationships and desire can be. Sometimes, even the [[words]] we use can be twisted beyond recognition. Or maybe how simple being with one another can be, when reduced to a single day.
Another vignette sees Michael (Pavan J Singh) visiting his wife (Karen Tan), seemingly for the [[first time]]. We learn that this happens every time they meet each other.
Michael picks her up from what seems to be a hospice or hospital ward and asks if she wants to [[take a walk]]. Michael introduces himself as though he was a stranger to his wife, who is curious and wary. According to Michael, they have been married for years and have two children. According to Michael, they have almost the same conversation [[each time]]. His wife has zero recollection of their relationship.
They [[take a walk]], and start to talk.Take the word "love".
Simple enough, isn't it? We use it often
and it is also the theme of this TheatreWorks season - "Because I Love You"
"I love to sleep."
"I love to eat"
"I love XYZ"
"I [[love]]"In a vignette presenting a pair of parents (Ebi Shankara and Janice Koh) and a teacher (Shou Chen Tan), the word "love" becomes bastardised, sexualised.
The vignette shows the teacher being accused of being a [["pervert"]]
Here you have another [[choice]]And here, [[another]] choice...And [[another.]]..And [[another..]].
About now, I think, I've made my point that this is a [[false]] choice.
Maybe you're getting impatient, frustrated.
But before you get mad, remember, you can always [[leave]].You see, <i>Reunification</i> is not just about love, or desire, or all the warm fuzzy emotions you feel when you are with your loved ones.
I think it is also about the [[privatisation]] of love, a [[bastardisation of intimacy]].With a click, you gain access to a special block of text. Just for you. This is [[just between me and you]]. No one else.
You won't know if this is indeed special, unless you go through every single possible option. Unless you exercise and exhaust every choice I present you. It's frustrating, I know.
Like I said, this is a simulation of a dialogue, a relationship, under the cover of this web browser.
A short virtual one, where you cherry-pick what I have to say, and choose to [[stay]] with me or [[leave]].
What strong language.
You see, in one of the vignettes, "love" is a word that is undeniably sexualised, and therefore perverse.
What do I mean by that?
The vignette opens to a [[simple]][[scene]] This [[happens]]He visits her.
They chat, cautiously
at first (with the wife addressing her husband as "Sir"),
then more casually (her tentatively, coyly calling him "Michael").
We learn that some days, the walk ends with them making love.
After [[his wife]] is suitably convinced of their marriage
and love.
where we see a pair of angry parents (Ebi Shankara and Janice Koh) interrogating a teacher (Tan Shou Chen).
Voices are raised as the teacher is accused of being a "pervert" for staying with a bullied child overnight, for wanting to [[comfort]] a crying boy.
The teacher accuses the pair of parents for neglecting their child, for not being able to see past their own prejudices.
The teacher claims to provide care and warmth in a way they have failed to.
The teacher claims that the parents have not been the best support for their [[beloved child]], for whom they are kicking up a fuss about. Because he chose to [[comfort]] a crying boy who was bullied, and allowed him to stay in his room overnight
Because the boy was "afraid of going back to the dorm". You see, <i>Reunification</i> is made up of 20 short vignettes exploring what love is.
I also think it presents romance and love in all its forms twisted by modern life.
I think it is about the [[privatisation]] of intimacy and love.
Or [[amatonormativity]].Coined by Elizabeth Brake, this word refers to
"The assumption that a central, exclusive, [[amorous]] relationship... is a universally shared goal, and that such a relationship is normative, in the sense that it should be aimed at in preference to other relationship types."
My main focus here is the bit where Brake writes about a "preference to other relationship types", and so a romantic relationship becomes an ideal, the [[Most Important relationship]] anyone can have. The word "amorous" is unfortunately also often associated with romantic love, and by extension,
sexualised.
I'll go one step further and say that it veers towards the [[bastardisation of intimacy]] [[each time]] Which also brings to question [[where the child is]] in this conversation, this scene.
We see no trace of children in all of 20 vignettes. Are children just a symbol onto which we [[peg]] whatever it is we need them to be? She was never named. All we know is Michael.
Just like how she doesn't know anything beyond Michael
and her children
(whom we later learn visit her occasionally)
(whom we later learn have also been [[forgotten]] by her)
We only learn a slice of Michael's
and his wife's life and character.
To her, each encounter is new.
Michael is her entire world at that [[instant]].
You will only get to spend time with several slices of <i>Reunification</i>, depending on how long you stay with me.
Sounds like the free market, isn't it? Almost endless options, so long as we can both afford it.
Right now, these blocks of text are yours to [[maneuver]], somewhat.
You can also choose to [[exit]].
What does it mean to love a child, your (potential) child? To draw your attention back to <i>Reunification</i>, the written message in the program booklet asks:
"Is love enough?"
Or, with a slight edit on my part, "is <b>claiming</b> love enough?"
Is there something false in the way children are [[paraded]] as our beloved, as reasons for our [[irrational]] behaviours?In another vignette centred around a child, we see a pair of parents (Timothy Nga and Janice Koh) and their babysitter (Umi Kalthum Ismail) in a mind-boggling conversation about missing children.
A woman opens the scene in a wild panic when she is unable to find her children. Her caring husband in turn interrogates the babysitter about the whereabouts of their children. As the scene unfolds, we begin to suspect that there might not be any children at all. The babysitter calmly explains how she was told to "pretend there are children" while the couple becomes increasingly desperate,
[[hysterical]].
Well. As promised, this is it.
Feels a little disappointing, isn't it? Whether you've spent an hour or less than a minute with me, to end with this. Does it feel a little hollow, a little bit like a cold steel frame? <i>Reunification</i> was somewhat like this. Sparse, with each vignette cleanly delineated from each other with a loud clang.
Given a runtime of 2.5 hours, speeding through all 20 vignettes in <i>Reunification</i> was quite a rollercoaster ride. It left me feeling frustrated, a little manipulated.
Like how you might be feeling right now.
Thank you for spending your time with me, for joining me in this little journey. Feel free to go back to the [[beginning]]. Of course, we know that other relationships are as, if not more, important...
[[Do we]]?We see romance everywhere. We are primed by popular media to seek love, that it is the One True Cure to all of life's suffering.
Admit it; we do have some sort of an obsession with romantic love.
Sometimes, we immediately jump into conclusions and assume love to be romantic. We kind of allow other forms of [[love]] to be obscured, twisted, set aside. Or even disbelieved. It feels flimsy, doesn't it
that I called this a dialogue
that this is a review of a play about love and intimacy
and yet all you're doing here is clicking and [[clicking]] and might I say, even a little [[addicted]] at this point? I feel your frustration. Or I could be completely wrong, and you're just bored.
You just want to be done with this now, but the nagging feeling that you might be missing something [[keeps you here]]. Even when there's no love?
I wonder if that says something about the [[nature ]]of [[attention]]Or [[human]] nature.
Which I will, as an [[apology. ]]
Well. As promised, this is it.
Feels a little disappointing, isn't it? Whether you've spent an hour or less than a minute with me, to end with this. Does it feel a little hollow, a little bit like a cold steel frame? <i>Reunification</i> was somewhat like this. Sparse with the cast always in full view of the audience, dressed in simple white when they are off stage.
Given a runtime of 2.5 hours, speeding through all 20 vignettes in <i>Reunification</i> was quite a rollercoaster ride. It left me feeling frustrated, a little manipulated.
Like how you might be feeling right now.
Thank you for spending your time with me, for joining me in this little journey. Or you're genuinely annoyed now and I should give you [[a way out]]...[[Right this way, please. ]]Twine is a handy little software that allows people to craft interactive stories. Each highlighted word or phrase is a portal that links to a specific [[pathway]]
An equivalent encounter is a mouseclick here.
You don't know what you will [[see]] next.
This is your [[entire world]] in this instant.
If you were Michael's wife, you wouldn't remember this even if you'd seen it [[before]].Some sort of [[privatisation]].While this adds a shine of exclusivity, it also means that "love" becomes something that is of a personal responsibility.
In other words, with the emphasis on choice and individual responsibility, a lack of support that stems from a lack of love becomes a personal failing.
If this sounds [[lonely]],it is because it [[is]].
then [[accusations]].
The conversation slowly devolves as they start to yell at each other, and we realise that we are literally helpless bystanders watching a relationship [[disintegrate]].
Do relationships dissolve because we are unable to communicate with each other? Is the answer to stop talking to each other, or to try harder?
While the characters played by Umi and MacQuarrie become increasingly distant from each other as they argue, I wonder what is it about conversations and relationships that are so [[complicated]] that we forget how to properly engage with each other.In a vignette where Umi Kalthum Ismail and Cynthia Lee MacQuarrie play two characters mired in a debate of what is "truth" and "love", the breakdown in communication is clear.
They start with [[questions]]Well, this is it.
Feels a little disappointing, isn't it? Whether you've spent an hour or less than a minute with me, to end with this. Does it feel a little hollow, a little bit like a cold steel frame? <i>Reunification</i> was somewhat like this. Sparse with the cast always in full view of the audience, dressed in simple white when they are off stage.
Given a runtime of 2.5 hours, speeding through all 20 vignettes in <i>Reunification</i> was quite a rollercoaster ride. It left me feeling frustrated, a little manipulated.
Like how you might be feeling right now.
Thank you for spending your time with me, for joining me in this little journey. Well, this is it.
Feels a little disappointing, isn't it? Whether you've spent an hour or less than a minute with me, to end with this. Does it feel a little hollow, a little bit like a cold steel frame? <i>Reunification</i> was somewhat like this. Sparse with the cast always in full view of the audience, dressed in simple white when they are off stage.
Given a runtime of 2.5 hours, speeding through all 20 vignettes in <i>Reunification</i> was quite a rollercoaster ride. It left me feeling frustrated, a little manipulated.
Like how you might be feeling right now.
Thank you for spending your time with me, for joining me in this little journey. Feel free to go back to the [[beginning]]. They beg their babysitter to have "compassion" and "pity", to "return" their children to them. They begin catastrophising about how their life as a couple has no meaning without their children.
At the height of their hysteria, their children's wellbeing no longer seems to be a priority. They become increasingly confused and desperate. They repeatedly question what they will do if their children no longer exist.
A sick realisation: this tenuous relationship, marriage, is held together solely by the physical culmination of their "love".
Are children some sort of a receipt, perhaps? Proof of [[payment]], of time and effort... and love spent? and you enter them by clicking on whichever word strikes your fancy.
The idea of using Twine as a tool to write theatre reviews came when Corrie shared <a href="https://www.contemporarytheatrereview.org/2016/megan-vaughan-twine" target="_blank">Megan Vaughan's piece</a> with us.
Isn't this a little more fun than scrolling through a page? Gives you a little more breathing space?
Now, go back to the [[beginning]] and start your adventure.You see, <i>Reunification</i> is not just about love, or desire, or all the warm fuzzy emotions you feel when you are with your loved ones.
I think it is also about the [[privatisation]] of love.[[Alienation]] isn't uncommon in this world we live in.