“Linear narrative made exploring challenging themes effective” THE WAY WE GO by Claire Wong (Checkpo

It is hard to explore death, purely because we have not experienced it. That is why we often use ideas of life and time to attempt to explore death instead, because sometimes it is not how we died, it is how we lived. Checkpoint Theatre’s latest production, ‘The Way We Go’, had presented some challenging topics to in quite a raw and honest way. Through the use of a linear narrative, Joel Tan’s writing and Claire Wong’s direction has both managed to capture the essence of a particular Singaporean teacher’s life and the impact that she has had on the people around her.

The play started at a funeral, the funeral of the main character Agatha Mao portrayed by Lydia Look, where the primary characters were introduced via their presence at her funeral. These primary characters include, the bitter boyfriend Edward portrayed by Patrick Teoh, her loyal best friend and fellow colleague Violent portrayed by Neo Swee Lin and her two ex-students Gillian and Lee-Ying, portrayed by Julie Wee and Xin Xuan respectively. The entire piece bounced back between the funeral, which was in the present, and memories of the principal characters in the past. As the play progressed, I felt that the play was focusing on the other characters around Agatha, instead of Agatha herself. By the end of the play, I found myself not being able to empathize with Look’s character, instead being more engaged by the relationship between Lee-Ying and Gillian and the relationship between Edmund and Violet. I felt that Agatha was more of a catalyst that brought these characters together or apart. Though I got to know about Agatha’s perspectives and ideas of life, I never got to empathize with her on a deeper level. It was a mixture of Look’s cold-hearted delivery and a little bit of the writing of the character that led me to this conclusion.

The set consisted of a white coffin in mid-stage, several pieces of domestic furniture that had light colors similar to the coffin, keeping the colors of the stage constant. The coffin was the constant set that was never altered, as if witnessing all these remembrances of time passing by, which was a very nice touch. These pieces of domestic furniture, together with the cold and warm washes of light, helped with the tying of all the characters together and the differentiation of time. Using this mechanism of driving the story forward, it was clear enough when it was the events of past, and when it was the events of the present. The costume design was utilized well too, characters would differentiate scenes with the removal or an add-on of a jacket or a suit. All these tools aided the story to move forward and not provide confusion for the audience.

‘The Way We Go’ was not what I was expecting. It had wonderful characters, a wonderful and somewhat peaceful atmosphere, but the loose narrative of the story was the one that really got me. It was the idea of memories, who we were and who we are now. Instead of the cliché narrative, ‘The Way We Go’ manages to capture that rare reality to not always look back on the past, but to also face challenges head on in the present. What is important is not when we reach our destination, is the way we got there.

Aaron.

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