About Undercover (1994)

Tan Tarn How strikes a chord in all of us with his clever satire, Undercover. It is a piece of writing that is much-applauded and reflects a shift in his writing – from American realism (as seen in Home in the first compendium, Fat Firgins, Fast Cars and Asian Values) to an exploration of the farcical medium in a Brechtian manner.

Source: Laundry, Mergers & Undercover. TheatreWorks and Singapore Press Holdings (1995).

“Nothing is what it seems… Everybody is out to deceive everybody else. The play shows how absurd it gets sometimes. There is a little bit of sexism and politics in the play, but these are peripheral to the central theme of deception.

“Tarn How and I agree that the play is about things that are ridiculous. It does not judge what is good or bad, but merely reveals one aspect of truth. Ultimately, it is up to the audience to pick what they want to see."

Source: Love and deception, but it’s just a frothy soap by Lee Yin Luen. In The Straits Times (16 November 1994), http://tinyurl.com/zddeq63

Whereas the intense Qiang (whose furrowed eyebrows hardly relax throughout the evening) plays it straight, the mechanical Jane moves from serious role-playing to absurd caricature.

The way these two modes subvert each other means that the audience can laugh through it superficially, or derive deeper meaning from their own recognition of, and reflection on, the stage happenings.

Source: Undercover, a revealing farce by Koh Buck Song. In The Straits Times (23 November 1994), http://tinyurl.com/gnvbeo6

[The plot] sounds like a good premise for some fun, but alas, Tan’s script, Lok Meng Chue’s direction and the cast fail to milk much laughter out of it.

To begin with, Tan does not have a good ear for dialogue. Given this shortcoming, the playwright would have done better if he had written an outright farce. Especially since he does have the ability to tell good jokes, and to come up with effective one-liners. However, for some inexplicable reason, he has chosen to throw in a dab of philosophy and a pinch of politics.

Source: A farce falls flat on its face by Susan Tsang. In The Business Times (1 December 1994), http://tinyurl.com/jy8bdjm

Tan’s plays occupy the terrain of “fictive realism or docudrama”, like Crimewatch on television, but infinitely refined by the sophistication of philosophical reflection and satirical treatment. […] Undercover gives a metadramatic spin to the Marxist conspiracy of 1987 when founding members of the local theatre company The Third Stage were arrested for allegedly subversive activity.

Source: Tan Tarn How: The playwright as social commentator extraordinaire by Dr. K. K. Seet. In Six Plays by Tan Tarn How. Epigram Books (2011).

Though Undercover explicitly states that the piece is meant to take place in “[a]n imaginary country”, the similarities between the play – as well as the play within it – and the incident it is based on (the arrests of members of The Third Stage theatre group as part of their involvement in the alleged Marxist conspiracy of 1987) are clear enough.

Source: Six of the Best: Compilation revives veteran playwright's greatest hits by Laremy Lee. In QLRS, Vol. 10(3), (2011), http://tinyurl.com/gp7fytx

Tan was cautious. He cites the turbulent events of 1994, including the authorities’ decision to not fund the unscripted forms of performance art and forum theatre for a decade. He says: “There was change, but it was change only up to a certain extent. We came from ‘very restrictive’ to ‘less restrictive’, but it was definitely not freedom – not even some sort of restricted freedom.”

Source: The Lady of Soul and Her Ultimate ‘S’ Machine heralded change by Corrie Tan. In The Straits Times (25 November 2014), http://tinyurl.com/gppoej2

In last year’s crop, journalist Tan Tarn How’s Undercover, a political satire about an internal security department, was one play considered potentially problematic.

But it was viewed as an exception rather than part of a trend, Mr Liew [Chin Choy, NAC’s director of arts programmes] noted.

The Drama Review Committee, the NAC’s advisory panel, decided the TheatreWorks’ play was acceptable in the context of the whole season’s line up.

Source: Nine more drama groups exempted from censorship under new system by Koh Buck Song. In The Straits Times (25 May 1995), http://tinyurl.com/hj2ohex