PRESIDENT’S LETTER (Special Convention edition)

Dear Nyonyas and Babas,

The Making of The Matriarchs: The Untold Story

A Serendipitous Moment

My story begins ten years ago in March 2011 when I was captivated, for the second time, by the dramatic flourishes of Ivan Heng’s hip-swivelling Emily of Emerald Hill.

We were stepping out of Esplanade Theatre when I turned to my wife Linda and said, “Wouldn’t it be great to see Ivan play opposite GT Lye as Emily’s mother-in-law?”

Little did I know then that I would be breathing life into this wistful idea in late 2018.

Soon after our election as the new General Committee (GC) of The Peranakan Association Singapore (TPAS) in May 2018, we started to plan for our 120th anniversary regional Baba Nyonya convention which was to be held in November 2020 then.

I casually tossed the idea to the team, suggesting it as a one-hour play to anchor the day-long event.

“The play will be the signature for the anniversary convention and can kick off the regional symposium, arts festival, bazaar, heritage tours and grand closing dinner,” I had said. “It will bring in the crowds.”

The team and Gwen Ong, our Events Head and my co-organiser for the convention, were optimistic it could be done except for one thing. 

We were not in the least sure we could bring the two Peranakan theatre giants – Ivan and GT – together.

Or even to get award-winning Peranakan playwright Stella Kon to buy into the idea. Emily of Emerald Hill was her play, already a modern classic. We would need her assent above all else. How would we convince Stella to accept a second character beside Emily in her one-woman monologue? 

I nursed this project not knowing how or when I would act on it. The first move had to succeed. For months I was in inertia. All it needed was for any one of the three protagonists to say “no” and the idea would bomb. Much prayer went into it.

Then, in early 2019, I received a text from Alvin Tan of The Necessary Stage (TNS), “Baba Colin, can we meet to discuss a possible collaboration with the Peranakan Association?” Alvin was and still is the much-respected Cultural Medallion recipient and founder and artistic director of TNS.

Over lunch at Chinese Swimming Club’s Man Zhu Café, I decided to bounce  the play’s concept off Alvin in the context of the anniversary convention.

Alvin loved the concept. Perhaps the audacity of it. An inner voice urged me – Ask him. Now. “Alvin, would you like to direct this play?” Without any hesitation he replied, “Yes. I would love to. I know all three of them – Stella, Ivan and GT.”

Until that juncture I had not thought about who would direct the play. It was a serendipitous moment. We now would have four celebrated Peranakans involved in the play if we could persuade the other three to join Alvin.

A Beautiful Dream

With the trigger pulled, I wasted no time. I called Ivan a few days later and explained the concept of the play. I told him Alvin had agreed to direct it.

I asked him, given his heavy year-end theatre schedule, if he would play the role of Emily opposite GT as Emily’s Baba Malay-speaking mother-in-law. “For just half an hour one November morning?”

“Yes, of course!” was Ivan’s immediate reply.* It is precisely this moment that Ivan dramatically captured in his Facebook post of 8 September 2021 when TPAS launched the sale of tickets to its 33rd Baba Nyonya International Convention.

I called GT next, not wasting time or momentum. Linda and I had known GT for many years already. We had shared meals as friends do and would hang on to his fascinating stories of the many shades of Peranakans, especially what their matriarchs did to while away their time during Singapore’s early post-war years. 

He replied: “It is too great an honour for me. I pray it will happen. I don’t have many years left. I will give my very best ever for the culture, you and Linda and TPAS.”

He added: “As for writing the Baba Malay script, I really do not know what is expected. Also my vision is bad. But I think if someone can write my lines in English, I can deliver them in Baba Malay.”**

I assured him that I had already lined up Alvin and Emeric Lau, who is trained in theatre studies, to write the mother-in-law’s script in English. Linda, who is proficient in Melaka Baba Malay, would translate.

By this time, I remember clearly, we had only a few weeks left to TPAS’s first Baba Nyonya Literary Festival from 20 to 21 July 2019 and Stella Kon was going to be one of our headline readers at the event. GT was to be there too as our special guest to perform Dondang Sayang. I had planned to approach Stella at the event.

With the three icons – Alvin, Ivan and GT – happily committed to the play, we had only Stella left to join the crew. She was pivotal because without her on board there would be no play.

I was a little apprehensive, partly because I did not know her then. But I also felt assured because Alvin and Ivan had described Stella as “a lovely person” and as “reasonable although fiercely protective of her Emily.” It was understandable.

I did not have to worry. At the festival, playing the role of Emily, Stella suddenly stepped up to me and read from her book: “Mr Chee! So glad you can come! I am just waiting for you to be the guest of honour at the table. Ah yo Mr Chee, no more ‘little Em-lee,’..” It broke the ice. This scene is actually in the play and thoughtful Stella must have planned it as a felicitous surprise!

During tea break at the festival, GC member Ngiam May Ling and organiser of the event introduced both GT and me to Stella.

I wasted no time telling her excitedly about the proposed play and that Alvin, Ivan and GT had all agreed to be a part of it. Would she allow us to use Emily of Emerald Hill as the basis for the yet unnamed play?

Perhaps sensing a seminal adaptation in the making, she spoke the magic words: “Of course you can.” She added, “But I can’t speak or write Baba Malay. Someone else has to do that. You must promise to safeguard the integrity of the play.”

I said I did not speak Baba Malay either but we had that taken care of. I also assured her we would not disrespect Emily.

When I shared the good news with the GC shortly after, our Hon Treasurer Ronney Tan wrote: “This must be a dream come true for all Wayang Peranakan die-hards. If Ivan and GT develop the right chemistry, this once-only performance deserves to be recorded for posterity. Imagine the Baba English and Baba Malay exchanges between the Neo and the Menantu.”

On 13 November 2021 during a WhatsApp exchange about The Matriarchs with Koh Bee Bee of Wild Rice, Ivan’s right arm, Bee Bee remarked: “It is a beautiful dream. Thank you.”

On Saturday 20 November 2021 at 9.00 AM, this beautiful dream will come true. 

Mari Hibor Hati! Let’s Enjoy Ourselves!

Colin Chee
Keeping the Culture Alive
18 November 2021

NOTE 

*On 27 February this year (2021), at the first reading of the play with the two actors together at my home, Ivan brought along a weathered red journal and placed it on the dining table. I asked him what it was. Looking at me and then turning his gaze to GT who was sitting on his right, Ivan humbly asked GT, “Do you remember I went to Melaka to interview you extensively before I played Emily for the very first time? I learnt a lot about the matriarchs from you.” Flipping through the pages, Ivan read out his notes from the journal. GT was astonished.

** On 12 January this year (2021), when I had finally selected the scenes for Emily’s role, Alvin, Emeric, Linda and I met with GT to discuss his lines. Before our very eyes, GT spontaneously ‘transformed’ into Mrs Gan, Emily’s mother-in-law. We had to hold him back to record his on-the-spot Baba Malay monologue on my iPhone 8 for the next two hours with timely interruptions as Alvin and Emeric suggested changes to his lines, highlighting the dramatic moments. Linda then transcribed his voice recording and translated the monologue into English.