In many ways, Fewling! is terribly unpolished. Dance moves are messy, the quality of singing is irregular, and any sense of dramatic unity is shot – the focus shifts wildly from minor to major characters almost at random, while the music goes without warning or reason from mostly minus ones plus speech to a sudden string of re-contextualised covers of Akon's Dangerous, Britney's Womanizer and the Wonder Girls' Nobody.
Yet it's also this very sense of unorganized play that makes this mini-musical so enjoyable. The ensemble are utterly irreverent in their retelling of King Solomon/Sulaiman's love for Balqis, the Queen of Sheba: they refer to her as "Miss B", show them sharing a joint of marijuana after a feast, and present the famous scene where she tests the king's wisdom as a TV gameshow. Interestingly, the roles of the two romantic leads are rotated among different members of the cast – there's even a female Sulaiman at one point. And all this anarchy is without agenda: the barrage of cross-dressing and tomfoolery is punctuated with heartfelt exclamations of "Shahada!", with a conclusion simply reiterating the fleeting nature of human love in the face of eternity.
A few more shout-outs. Junainah Yusoff's set design is fabulous: she's turned the Arts House Gallery into the interior of a Middle Eastern bridal tentage, with swathes of cloth hanging from the walls and ceiling, while we sit on cushions, watching the action and eating sultanas and cakes and sipping rose tea. And although all the actors deserve credit for their energy and creativity (they devised the script themselves), Hatta Said and Gloria Tan stand out for their skills in physical acting and comedy.
An enjoyable evening indeed.