Man of Letters

Lini and I watched the latest Dick Lee musical at the University Cultural Centre this afternoon. Called 'Man of Letters', it's commissioned by NUS to celebrate its 100th anniversary. (This 100th anniversary thingy is highly debatable.) The sources of the plot are Arthur Lim's "From a Doctor's Diary" (2000) and the classic French play, "Cyrano de Bergerac". They are connected together well enough, though I suspect there's more of Cyrano than Diary in the final draft. Which doesn't lessen the entertainment. We both found the musical lovely and vibrant. It struck a chord because it was localised. And any guy who has ever felt tongue-tied in front of a love interest will sympathise with the hapless inarticulate suitor of Roseanne. There are 2 songs that stood out, and both can be heard as sampler from www.nus.edu.sg/cfa/MOL/music.html. The second song bought back memories of songs my parents listened to when I was young. It's got an oriental flavour to it which I find very soothing. Dick Lee not only wrote the music, but the lyrics too, and that's a remarkable talent.

But thinking a bit deeper about the story, I'm not sure if those who actually went to the University of Malaya in the mid-50s are not a bit embarassed by it. The thing is, all the political elements alluded to in the story are the work of communists, and communist sentiments, as far as I know, was never strong in the English-speaking camp which was UM. This much was clear from Prof Wang Gungwu's talk at the National Library I went to last month, when he recalled how by 1948, everyone including the British knew that their days in Singapore were numbered and it was only a question of who will inherit the place once they were gone. The British were training up a new generation of civil servants who will be modelled after Britain's system, and this was at the great expense and resentment of the Chinese-speaking populance. The students at UM knew they were being trained to "inherit the earth". They have no reason to riot, or sing about "Freedom" like peasants under tyrants. In fact, Prof Wang said that as soon as the police knew of writings sympathetic to the left, the writers would be hauled in and jailed without trial. So the English-speaking students were largely law-abiding and apolitical. It was the Chinese-speaking students and their clansmen who have to sweat like hell to get Nantah going in 1955. All the riots (the exciting parts of the musical) were not the work of UM students as was made out to be; but the work of Chinese high-schoolers and the trade unions; the under-privileged, marginalised outsiders they felt they were, who boiled over, agitated by communist workers who were inspired by events in mother China. So it's a bit disingenious to see this bunch of British colonial students; sprouting poetry, engaging in ragging ("Senior Gentleman Sir!" brought back some angry memories for me), dancing the Prom night, judging Freshie Queen pagaent and visiting cabarets; to expect this bunch of sissies to fight for the underclass, speak of "causes", confront riot police, lead street marches, and be heroic... well, to ask me to believe that is to ask me to believe NUS is a 100 years old. Interestingly, Lee Kuan Yew admired the communists for their clean living. That's why he modelled PAP after them, white shirts and all. So to see a character like Selva, who we are expected to accept as a Commie leader, visiting cabarets and dressing like a hippie later, it's a bit of an insult to the Communist, I'd say. And the last scene, when a character who is injured in a riot was paraded to the crowds in a stretcher instead of taken to the hospital, and this led to his death, this incident did occur in real life in 1955. Except it wasn't a UM student. It was a Chinese high school student. It's an event of great dramatic potential, but it has nothing to do with the history of the university. So when I say that UM students watching this musical may be embarassed by this, I mean they may feel this is borrowed glory as far as the more exciting scenes were concerned. They were never this political.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'll still say it was great to see a bit of local history dramatised so memorably, even if it's history distorted. Robin Goh and Emma Yong were great and they do the theatre scene proud. The runs ends tomorrow, but let's hope it's not too long before we enjoy its revival.

Chup