(I recommend reading the book first before attempting to absorb this jibber jabber. Written for feature writing module.)
[Pic courtesy of World Wide Web, forgot the source =P]
What would you do if you had an enigmatic, mummified monkey’s hand that could grant you three wishes but produced only dire consequences, and you can vouch for it because you’ve witnessed it yourself?
Oh, just pass it on to another friend who has a family of two to care for, and who already lost a son prior to your last visit. They wouldn’t mind you conspicuously handing Herbert, their only son now, some malicious-looking, potentially devastating little object that probably
cost the lives of its previous owners. You would attempt to barbeque it in their living room fireplace but do it only half-heartedly so they can keep it whilst you relinquish that you finally have it washed off your hands!
It would at first seem you were being considerate in relating how the paw should be carefully perused due to its malevolent nature and so you expound on and reiterate the importance of not using it to wish on anything willy-nilly, if possible. Then, knowing the devious self you are, you leave it in their care and run to the next country. Or that is just my version of where Morris disappeared to though; I should stop haranguing about how flippantly he handled the magical paw already.
Still, that was where the story of The Monkey’s Paw was headed. Despite the limitations of the book though, Simone Khoo, director and producer of the Monkey’s Paw play, worked with Communications, Arts and Social Sciences (CASS) students in Singapore Polytechnic to piece the show together. The event took place on 14 June, if I remember right… Some of the students are under the Diploma Plus program for Theatre Performance and Production with Simone Khoo as their lecturer and initiator for the play.
Collaborating with students from School of Digital Media and Infocomm Technology as well, the play proceeded with them working behind the scenes for every show. They were relentlessly creating the effects of a fireplace, rolling countryside outside the prop window and more significantly the scene when the Whites’ son came back from the grave. It gave everyone the jitters all right.
The author of Monkey’s Paw did not make it entirely easy for adaptation of any medium, and hence I would have to applaud Simone’s effective dexterity in terms of content and direction. What made it difficult was that it incorporated an everyday scenario, and an evil, unsuspecting magical object in the midst of the good people, so there was the contrast that was similar to having Sauron’s ring in a Hobbit’s possession.
In the story in general, author W.W. Jacobs had decided to explain how the paw would come under possession of the Whites. And with that, I feel he made a terrible blunder introducing war veteran Morris to the respectable family of Whites (I could not imagine the Whites keeping relations with a friend who was involved in their first son Steven’s death). Also, this is along with the men’s dubious interest for the supernatural while Mrs White is portrayed as one not to conform. It’s a horror story, for goodness’ sake! And to think the men would act on such a property of magical elements with more revere.
One fellow spectator, Eileen, could only comment on weathered Mrs White, the poor lady who had to work her lungs for the dramatic emotional turmoil of the play to surface. ‘Mrs White went into a hysterical state when she tried to get her husband to wish Herbert back. Her desperation then was strangely pitiful yet heart-wrenching at the same time. Her shrieks were most memorable because they jolted me awake from time to time... Normally screams are hard to depict emotions.’
I share Eileen’s admiration for Deborah Emmanuel’s portrayal of Jean White, aka Mrs White. Deborah was initially apprehensive at taking on the role of a mother who lost her children as she had ‘trouble maintaining the required older physicality ’, but we think she pulled it off rather better than expected! Her fussing, suffering and irrational playing with the idea of resurrecting her son was shown intensely in every action she made, vividly portraying the unrest a mother would have.
Some potential tragedy did befall Jean in the end though. Apparently through the wit of Stephen Holloway, the man with the plan to adapt the story for the play, the Whites had two sons, Steven and Herbert, instead of just Herbert. So upon Jean’s wish to have her son back, both were unprecedentedly resurrected. It was ambiguous so I guess the paw decided to be masochistic and have both sons live again. However, when the third wish was suddenly made to have THE son not live again, only one went back to the grave. You can figure the rest out.
