剧评： Model Citizens

一场没有赢家的食人竞赛—— 观《模范公民》

文：梁海彬



“昔者楚灵王好士细要，故灵王之臣皆以一饭为节，肱息然后带，扶墙然后起。比期年，朝有黧黑之色。是其故何也？君说之，故臣能之也。”

——《墨子.兼爱中》


我错过了当年2010年和2011年的演出，今年得以在必要剧场搬迁之前，在他们的黑箱剧场体验《模范公民》，感受必要剧场为观众剖析社会议题的初心，也和必要剧场一起重新思考何谓“模范”，何谓“公民”？

剧中的华人蔡太太（吴悦娟饰）是议员的妻子，在丈夫被清洁工刺杀受伤之时，接手议员工作，结果做得比丈夫还好。Melly（Siti Khalijah饰）是印尼女佣，急于获得新加坡公民。准备和Melly结婚的清洁工人因为求见议员被拒绝，于是执刀犯案。娘惹 Wendy（Karen Tan饰）作为Melly的雇主，迳自去向蔡太太求情，却在蔡太太处大碰钉子。

人物和彼此对话，时而也面向观众娓娓道出心里话、透露不为其他人物所知的心声。戏里的人物都是被压迫者，同时也在压迫彼此，甚至压迫自己，而我们知道自己也是这个社会下，压迫和被压迫循环下的受害者和加害者。观众和她们共处一室，像是聆听者，更像是共犯，随着她们的立场摇摆。

相对于舞台设计的黑白分明，以及剧名《模范公民》如此明确的用词，里头的人物在巨大的父权体制下挣扎求存，呈现的是人性的弱点，以及复杂多层的人性面貌。

语言、国籍、籍贯、身份和文化，都是该剧的主题，也是剧中人物用来互相攻击、或挣扎求存的工具。蔡太太不会说英语，Wendy只好用不流利的华语和蔡太太沟通。Melly曾在印尼修读英语，却向雇主Wendy谎称自己不会英语，让Wendy以马来语和她交谈。Wendy和蔡太太争辩时，因为社会阶级地位的悬殊，使得处于弱势的Wendy必须改变策略，以英语和蔡太太争辩。

 

 

照片来源：Tuckys Photography

角逐“模范公民”原来是一场“人吃人”的可怕竞赛。剧中人物在追逐中显露了复杂的人性，也泯灭了人性。创作组特别处理，让Wendy目睹儿子自杀之状时，Melly也同时经历堕胎之痛。下一代被“模范公民”吃掉，创作组给观众揭露的，是没有出路的绝望之感。

难忘到了最后，蔡太太把手搭在Melly的肩膀上，说她才是真正意义上的模范公民。或许在蔡太太看来，“模范公民”的头衔如同奖状，由权威人士颁发。但Melly肩头一耸，迳自摆脱了蔡太太为她冠上的“荣衔”，自在地拖着行李，走出了黑白的舞台空间。Melly摆脱这场角逐“模范公民”的方式是放弃参与这场“食人”游戏，纵使这意味着Melly将会回到她原本所处的贫困处境之中。

蔡太太最后也决定出走，到中国去。剧中唯一留下来的，是Wendy。她读着儿子的遗书，然后一语不发。观众都从Melly口中知道，Wendy的儿子根本没有留下任何遗书，这封遗书是Melly为了让Wendy走出心中的悲痛而伪造的。但熟悉儿子字迹，以及儿子语气和用词的Wendy，最终有没有识破这封伪遗书？最终有没有选择相信这封伪遗书？她为自己选择的出路是什么？创作团队不愿为观众作出答案—— 剧末，演员们也没有出场谢幕，她们带着人物离开，让观众带着人物走出剧场，思考社会上所有的蔡太太、Wendy、Melly们的处境。  

照片来源：Tuckys Photography

2021年版的《模范公民》由原班人马演出，幕后设计团队却由新一代设计师操刀。舞台设计的黑白空间，简约的线条，仿佛仅仅剩下骨架的房子，人物在敞开的空间穿梭。上半场，观众还可以凭藉演员们的走位，厘清舞台上不同的空间：蔡太太的家、Wendy的客厅、Melly的房间…… 下半场以后，空间的界线模糊，有时空间交叠，Wendy和蔡太太共用同一张桌子；有时空间延伸出另一个奇异空间，让蔡太太和Melly可以在那里相遇，进行一场在现实中近乎不可能发生的对话。空间的建立、破除、模糊、再建立，让人物之间有更多交流的可能性。人物也因此在对方身上审视自己的模样，或是自己永远不会成为的模样。

灯光主要以橙、黄、蓝三色的流动交替，营造出不同的空间：或是暗示空间界线的模糊，或如梦境般的奇幻空间。有时一旁柜子上的小桌灯会迳自亮起来，简单的设置让观众立刻明白那一场戏的时间，颇有惊喜。音乐设计走轻盈柔婉的路线，反衬剧中人物经历着的压抑、绝望、困境，而当音乐在最后一幕静止，Wendy在寂静中独自念出儿子的遗书，让人揪心。

三位资深演员的精湛演技更是不在话下。重拾昔年的角色，演员们驾轻就熟，在黑箱剧场的空间里，每一眼神流转，都传递了复杂多层的情感。对于角色所体现的矛盾与反覆，以及情感能量的爆发和收敛，演员们都掌控自如。她们是必要剧场长期合作的演员，其默契和艺术造诣的积累，是观众有目共睹的。 

照片来源：Tuckys Photography

必要剧场在马林百列民众具乐部运作了20年，为社区创作了百余部引人深思的戏剧作品。剧团接获通知，今年搬迁出原址，《模范公民》也就成了观众在必要剧场黑箱剧场内观看的最后一部作品。也在今年，教育部长宣布支持拉萨尔艺术学院和南洋艺术学院在未来四年内建立联盟成立本地首所艺术大学；同时，艺理会和电力站因为无法达到共识，促使电力站在今年关闭。

楚灵王好细腰，晋文公好士之恶衣，越王勾践好士之勇…… 我们究竟应该追谁之所好？在一场又一场的追逐中，我们失去的是否远比得到的多太多？《模范公民》的成功，在于即便过了十年，作品依然能够一针见血地道破社会上的阶级分化，族群政策的漏洞百出。或许我们该期望《模范公民》的“失败”？哪一天，当观众对其中的课题感到陌生，感到不可思议，或许正是我们社会的进步与成功。 



关于演出：2021年3月24日，8PM，必要剧场黑箱剧场，必要剧场呈现

更多关于《模范公民》的详情，请点击： https://www.necessary.org/main-season/model-citizens-2

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Model Citizens: A Dog-Eat-Dog Struggle with No Winners


Translated by Melissa Lim

“The Lord Ling of the state of Chu (about 535 B.C.) liked slender waists. And so all his ministers and officers limited themselves to a single meal (a day). They tied their belts after exhaling, and could not stand up without leaning against the wall. Within a year the court looked grim and dark. What was the reason for this?” —Mo Zi, Universal Love II



I had missed the 2010 and 2011 staging of Model Citizens. This year, as I watched Model Citizens at The Necessary Stage’s (TNS) Black Box—the home which they will be vacating soon—I felt acutely the company’s mission to create socially engaged work for their audience. I found myself thinking more deeply about the questions that TNS posed: what does it mean to be a ‘model” and a “citizen”?

In the play, after her husband—an MP—was injured due to a stabbing incident by a cleaner, Mrs Chua (played by Goh Guat Kian) took over his duties, and ended up doing a better job than him. Melly (played by Siti Khalijah) is an Indonesian maid desperate to get Singapore citizenship. Melly and her boyfriend (the aforementioned cleaner) had planned to get married, and when his request to see the MP was rejected, he acted out by stabbing the latter. Melly’s employer, Wendy (played by Karen Tan), a Peranakan, visited Mrs Chua to plead on their behalf, but was instead rebuffed

The characters interact with one another, and from time to time, they speak directly to the audience, revealing their inner feelings and thoughts. In the play, all three characters are oppressors and oppressed alike—even oppressing themselves at points. Like the three women, we too become acutely aware that we are both victims and perpetrators of this cycle of oppression in society. The audience play both observers and accomplices, their stances wavering as the play unfolds.

Unlike the sharp lines of the set design as well as the perspicuity of the term “Model Citizens” used in the title, the characters in the play reveal the multi-layered complexities and frailty of humanity, as they struggle to survive under a patriarchal system.

Language, nationality, race, class and culture are all explored within the play. They are also utilised by the characters as weapons to attack one another, or as tools of survival. As Mrs Chua is unable to speak English, Wendy has no choice but to use halting Mandarin to communicate with her. Melly had studied English whilst in Indonesia, but lies to her employer Wendy that she doesn’t know English, which in turn has Wendy speaking with her in Malay. When Wendy and Mrs Chua’s argument reach a climax, because of their inherent class difference, Wendy changes her strategy and deliberately speaks English to gain the upper hand.

The bid to be a “model citizen” turns out to be a devastating dog-eat-dog contest. In this race, the characters of the play expose the complexities of human nature, just as much as they ravage it. In one particular composition, Wendy’s discovery of her son’s suicide coincides with Melly crying out in pain as she self-aborts her pregnancy. The “model citizens” effectively devour their own progeny, and this juxtaposition of the two scenes demonstrates the utter despair that we cannot escape from.

In a memorable scene at the end of the play, Mrs Chua places her hand on Melly’s shoulder, and tells her that she is the most moral person she has ever met. Perhaps Mrs Chua views the title of a “model citizen” as a sort of prize awarded by someone in power. Instead, with a shrug of the shoulders, Melly sheds the “honour” that Mrs Chua had awarded her. She pulls her trolley luggage and leaves the starkly black and white space. Melly opts to abandon this “cannibalistic” game, thereby freeing herself from the race to be a “model citizen”—even if that implies she would return to her original state of poverty.

Mrs Chua also decides to leave— for China. The only character in the play who remains is Wendy. She sits reading her late son’s final letter in silence. Melly then tells the audience that actually, Wendy’s son did not leave anything behind. The letter had been written by Melly, so that Wendy could be finally in peace. Yet Wendy would have been familiar with her son’s handwriting and manner of writing. Would she have seen through the fake suicide note? Would she finally choose to believe that this note is real? What is the choice she would make? Model Citizens leaves not clear answer for the audience—and even when the play ends, there is no curtain call. Just as the actors leave embodying their characters, the audience leave and bring the characters with them. They emerge from the theatre pondering about the circumstances surrounding the Mrs Chuas, Wendys and Mellys in their midst

While the 2021 staging of Model Citizens sees the return of the original cast members, it features a new generation of designers. The set design is clean, minimal and kept monochrome, as if we are left with just the skeleton of a home, with the characters weaving through the open space. In the first half of the play, the audience could still discern the individual spaces of the characters based on where the actors were: Mrs Chua’s home, Wendy’s living room, Melly’s room… But by the second half of the play, the boundaries between the spaces are blurred. At times, time and space intersect—for instance, when Wendy and Mrs Chua concurrently use the same table. At other times, time and space stretch towards magical realism, thus creating a scene where Mrs Chua and Melly interact and converse in a manner near unthinkable in reality. The construction of spaces—and subsequently their dismantling, blurring and rebuilding—allows for more opportunity for the characters to communicate. Through these interactions, the characters see themselves in one another, or see the other that they could never be.

The lighting design focuses on the alternation of three colours—orange, yellow and blue—to create different spaces, as well as suggest the blurring of their boundaries which denote dream-like or fantasy spaces. At times, a desk lamp at a corner cabinet would light up on its own. The understated design indicates to the audience the passing of time in a pleasantly unpredictable manner. The sound design takes the audience through a gentle meander that reflects the characters’ predicaments through melancholy and despair. One cannot help but feel heartbroken in the closing scene as all music ceases, and Wendy sits alone, quietly reading her son’s suicide note.

The performances of the three actors are simply superb. They demonstrate their familiarity with the roles they revisit after many years. In the intimate space of the black box theatre, their every glance connotes a multitude of complicated emotions. It is evident that they have complete control of their characters’ complexities, motivations, and emotional capacity and depth. All three actors have been long-time collaborators with The Necessary Stage, and their rich artistic experience and innate intuitiveness as actors are a joy for the audience to witness.

The Necessary Stage has been situated at Marine Parade Community Building for over 20 years, and during this time, they have created over a hundred thought-provoking works for the community. The company had received news about its impending eviction this year. As such, Model Citizens has also become the swan song that audiences can watch at their black box theatre. Meanwhile, this year, the Ministry of Education announced that LASALLE College for the Arts and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts will jointly establish Singapore’s first university of the arts within the next four years. Concurrently, after an impasse between the National Arts Council and The Substation, the latter has also decided to shut its doors.

Lord Ling of Chu liked slender waists, Lord Wen of Jin favoured the uncouth soldier’s uniform, whilst Lord Goujian of Yue preferred a warrior’s courage … So who amongst the three should we aspire towards? In our relentless pursuit, do we lose much more than we gain? Model Citizens is a veritable success particularly because even after a decade, it astutely exposes our society’s class division and the loopholes in the state’s policies on ethnicity. Should we perhaps be hoping for the “failure” of Model Citizens? Perhaps we can only claim true progress and success for our society if, one day, our audience regard the themes explored in this play as remote and foreign.



Performance watched on 24 March 2021, 8PM, The Necessary Stage Black Box. Presented by The Necessary Stage.

To find out more about Model Citizens, visit https://www.necessary.org/main-season/model-citizens-2