Square Moon is a play that narrates a series of
cover-ups by the fictional Homeland Security Department after a
terrorist, Golden Hartono, escapes, and Hartono's lawyer, Kristina
Hu, is unlawfully detained without trial. Hu develops feelings for a
fellow detainee, River Yang, who is an opposition politician that
subsequently gains political office. When in office, the hopes of Hu
being released are dashed as Yang did not abolish the Homeland
Security Act.
If the audience were expecting a multi-dimensional, satirical, and intense reflection of the Internal Security Act and the issues surrounding detention without trial juxtaposed against how it infringes upon individual liberties, they would be disappointed as I was.
If the audience were expecting a multi-dimensional, satirical, and intense reflection of the Internal Security Act and the issues surrounding detention without trial juxtaposed against how it infringes upon individual liberties, they would be disappointed as I was.
As it turned out, the play Square Moon
does little to merit the 26 years that former Marxist detainee, Wong
Souk Yee, has kept her silence on the theater stage. Fans would no
doubt call it advocacy theater where Wong's political bias was laid
bare throughout the play, from the power hungry and nefarious royal
family (read Lee family) to the evil and dimwitted intelligence officers
of the Homeland Security Department (read ISD).
Critics would, however, argue that the
characters were under-developed, with the dichotomy between good and evil, weak and
powerful, so clearly separated that there was almost no room for
moral maneuvering and meaningful debate. The ending was as
predictable as a Stallone action film and a far cry from The Live of
the Others (a superb film about Stasi spying in defunct East
Germany). Still, it should be applauded that former ISA detainees
have found the courage and outlet again to participate in the arts
and public life.
Part 1
The play opens by bringing the audience
straight into the theme of torture with the prison guards and
directors of the HSD dressed in BDSM-inspired leather bondage gear
(but not to worry, there is no actual beating involved). Kristina Hu
and River Yang, played by Zelda Tatiana Ng and Lim Kay Siu
respectively, are seen cowering under the power that their captors
have over them. The captors are kept in line by Neo Swee Lin, who
acts as the evil but pious “Madame Minister”, daughter of the
reigning political party, desperately hanging on to power.
The opening act is the weakest part
of the play as Wong Souk Yee's script and Peter Sau's direction
hardly gels together. The BDSM theme and Catholic imagery appears
awkward and coerced, as torture of the inmates are portrayed blatantly
(perhaps needlessly) when instead “torture” would be better
understood as a more subtle form of psychological warfare; of
threats, fears against one's principled beliefs in democracy and
freedom. Here, the playwright could have added a layer of sophistication
by delving further into the
decision-making process of the Homeland Security Department officers
and the minister, rather than the simplistic portrayal of them as
unsophisticated evil-doers.
The highlight in this first part was
played by Erwin Shah Ismail, who as a prison guard and political
fence sitter, helped Hu and Yang to deliver their written notes and
feelings. The point of casting Erwin Shah as a cross-dresser is lost
on me, or perhaps that was just to show his identity crisis as a
Liberal-Socialist sympathiser. It is also a pity that his role as a political
fence-sitter was not further developed.
Part 2
The second part of the play is much
better, but still doesn't escape the simplistic binary tale of good
and evil, lacking humanisation and dilemmas. Surely, if the Homeland
Security Department and Homeland Security Act were so cruel and evil
as portrayed by Wong, they would have been removed by the general
populace already? So, for the sake of analysis, if they have survived
for such a long time, it is a pity that the writer did not grasp the
opportunity to illuminate the tensions between the politics of
majority against the
rights of individual liberty. It was also a missed opportunity to contrast how the ISA was used somewhat unpopularly in the 70s and
80s, with its less controversial use in the recent decade against
radical
Islamic terrorists, who were accused of plotting to cause mass
destruction.
The climax of the second part of the
play is when Yang gains political power and it becomes apparent that,
despite being imprisoned by the Homeland Security Act himself, the
Liberal-Socialist sinks familiarly back into self-preservation as the
Act is not repealed. The Director of Homeland Security Department,
along with everyone else, ingratiates themselves to Yang and more
prisons are built. Nothing seems to have changed, as those in power
can only think of ways to stay in power, just as Yang urges Hu to
compromise for a just and strong nation. Hu rebuffs Yang's attempts
to make her sign a confession saying that she was a “terrorist”
and remains as a detainee.
Ending
In all, the play spoke plainly from the
voices of the former 1987 detainees, Wong Souk Yee and collaborator,
Chng Suan Tze, who must have felt injustices after being detained
without an open trial; hence the constant theme of evil and power vs good and
weak in their play. We and many Singaporeans know of their hardship
and it is only for the better that they put out their art for the
public's benefit and debate.
What was missing was from this artistic
display was an analysis of the issues surrounding detention without
trial. Should individual liberties be at any time suspended because
of security concerns? And to what extent? In what sort of situations?
Who are these people who carry out these draconian laws? Are they
humans or plain villains? Why hasn't the general Singapore populace
called for a repeal of the ISA?
26 years later, it seems the same
Square Moon is equally capable of illuminating as well as casting a
shadow.
