Walking into the Forbidden World
Entering the theatre space, one draws associations of testicles, condoms, and sex. The space is filled with installations of globs hanging from ceilings and irregular platforms with four men standing on them. The shadows cast on the faces reveal intense emotions as they confess their secrets. This causes a vehement sense of uneasiness as one walks into the forbidden world of the characters.
Production designer Chris Chua, lighting designer Tai Zi Feng and sound designer Jing Ng adeptly integrate various stage elements to create the intimate world of the four gay men in Grind, which is directed by Goh Boon Teck.
Audience members are free to move around the room to listen, watch and react to the private lives of the four characters. At times, you may be detached from the characters. At others, they are up-close and personal as they could be speaking to your face or stripping right in front of you. This pulls me into the inner psyche of the characters as I experience what seems to be prohibited and yet real, sincere and powerful.
Pang (Chong Woon Yong) has found his life partner and has planned for a wedding, but the only thing which is incomplete is the lack of acceptance by his sister, his only family member. Tian (Juni Goh) is insecure about who he is in real life, and obsessively turns to social media to seek attention by hitting the gym compulsively and posting photos of his body online. Long (Mitchell Fang) actively strives for his rights as a gay man in a society where homosexuals are deprived of benefits meant only for the straight world. Gan (Stanley Seah) is a devoted Christian trapped between the condemnation of sin and embracing his sexuality. The actors sustain the piece with immense conviction, which is enhanced by a keen sense of rhythm and well-coordinated voice work. The actors also play different characters in the monologues of each lead character.
Written by Goh Boon Teck and Shar Pi’ee, the script is a commendable mix of humour, raw emotions, intelligent discourse, poetic revelation and analogies. Biblical references highlight the agony and struggle that Gan has to go through. The cities of Gomorrah and Sodom (which gives rise to the word Sodomy) are cited as cities of sin as people indulged in sexual acts, especially the “unnatural acts” consisting of anal or oral sex. Such a reference compels one to ponder about the issue of homosexuality in today’s society. Have things changed? Perhaps things have changed. Rather than being punished, the cities of sin—from a Christian perspective—are flourishing and filled with tourists, as put forth by the playwrights in the play.
The shame of being gay eventually leads Gan to commit suicide, which can also be read as a sacrifice for the sake of those around him. While his life winds up tragically, Tian, Pang and Long seem to find liberation and hope through the symbolism of the Pink Dot celebration at Hong Lim Park, which brings the piece to its finale.