An Honest Tribute for an Honest Man
White Soliloquy (or its Chinese title, 白言) pays tribute to its titular character, Bai Yan, beyond the typical celebratory hurrah of the “he did this” or “he made that possible” narrative. Rather, it is the humbling story of an everyday man, performed in a monologue, of roles we are but all too familiar with; a son, a husband and a father.
Fascinated with theatre from a young age, Bai Yan (played by Timothy Wan), the only child in his family, seizes the opportunity to join a travelling dance troupe. From then on, he travels across Asia, meets the girl of his dreams, survives World War II and its hardships before eventually settling down in Singapore. Of course, as many older Singaporeans would have known, he eventually becomes a local television actor and helps groom a new generation of television stars.
Think along the lines of “小人物的心声” (voices of the ordinary people) par exemplar. In this case, Bai Yan strives to live according to his own principles. It is the story of his maturing: his eventual growth from a brash youth into the strong and dependable man who is willing to suffer in silence for his family.
With that said though, the performance is a little lacklustre.
The stage, which is kept simple with only hundreds of paper origami ships, is aesthetically appealing. When used in conjunction with the rotating platform placed at centre stage, it creates a rather poetic illusion of ships sailing around the globe.
Yet, it is also the same set that weighs the performance down. Don’t get me wrong. The mise-en-scene is well designed, but Wan does not inhabit it well.
While I understand the difficulty (truly, I do) of performing in a one man show, his reliance on stock characteristics for his other characters cannot live up to the mise-en-scene. True, it helps the audience to identify and recognize the characters when he switches roles, but precisely because it is a soliloquy in a simple setting that these switches fall flat and become one dimensional.
I guess in its own little way, it celebrates in the ordinariness of Bai Yan, something that all of us can relate to. Besides, it is no coincidence that White Soliloquy is part of the National Arts Council’s Silver Arts programme, a platform which advocates for active seniors participation and enjoyment.