Hand To God puppet play in Singapore (was in USA)

I was in the office of the Singapore American Association, which I walked into by accident when I visit the American club looking for the American Women's Association. The editor gave me a copy of their newspaper and inside was a leaflet for a play Hand To God.

A few days later I hesitated about throwing away the leaflet. I thought, first I must read about the play.

Problem
Do I want to see this play? What if I'm busy or out of the country, in another country, when it's being performed? How can I find out about the plot?

Answer
The leaflet warned 'rude and noisy' performances, and I'm not keen on noise nor bad language. But I wanted to know the plot. So I typed 'Hand To God' and the name of the playwright, Robert Askins, into Google. Up popped a link to a complete synopsis of the play in Wikipedia.

I read the plot. At first it was hard to follow. The playwright has committed one of the errors we are often warned about as would be aspiring novelists at Writers Holiday in Wales and Writers Summer School. (Both writing week long events are held every summer, plus some weekend spring and autumn courses) in the UK. The regular advice to writers is, don't name your characters with names which start with the same letter because it confuses the reader.

This play has two characters with names starting with J and two with names starting with T. If you were watching the play, it would be obvious that Jessica is a girl and Jason is a boy. It would be obvious that Timothy is a boy and Tyrone is a puppet. (Unless the other characters are talking about them and both are off stage.) But when I was reading the plot I got lost half way and had to go back to the beginning to work out who was who.

America, Religion and Puppets
The play is an amusing idea. Apparently in the south of the USA, the Bible Belt, highly religious, churches use puppets to teach children bible stories.

The Plot
The plot is about a widow who is asked by her pastor to perform a puppet show, with puppets. Other characters are her son, and three other teenagers.

Key elements of the plot: rivalry of two people for both the women, mother Margery, and the teenage Jessica. Throw in Margery and Jason both blaming the other for Margery's husband death.

Puppet Characters
Allow the puppet to reveal love, reveal who had slept with whom, who blames whom.

Have the puppets becoming characters criticising the person operating the puppet, the other characters.

Have the puppet as commentator to the audience, making opening and closing remarks about how society is organised through history and good and evil. Very effective.

Performance Facts
Having got interested, my next bit of sleuthing was to hunt down the ticket prices and discounts and dates.

Dates
The show is on in Singapore 19 April to May according to the website.

Place
Singapore Repertory Theatre at K C Art Centre. 20 Merbau Road, Singapore 239035. Nearest MRT Clarke Quay. Exit G. Nine minutes walk.
http://www.streetdirectory.com/asia_travel/travel/travel_id_8227/travel_site_23055/get_here/

Dates, Times and Prices
Phone SISTIC 6348 or www.sistic.com.sg
Monday to thursday performances are at 8 pm and cost $45 for Cat1 and $35 for Cat 2. Friday and Saturday prices are $60 for cat 1 and $50 for cat2.

Discounts
Discounts include a free ticket if you book for five people, and discounts for bookings of 20 people.

Ages and Suitability
"Parental Advisory. R18 (Strong coarse language and religious references) Rude and noisy puppets on stage."

Ages and Special Offers
Those aged 18-25 can get front row seats, reduced prices - only $15, and free workshops and backstage tours. You need to be able to show a Singaporean NRIC (national identity card) at a SISTIC outlet.

The leaflet quotes good reviews from the The New York Times and UK's Daily Telegraph, The Times, Official London Theatre.

Performance History
The first performance was in New York in 2011. The play performed in London in 2016. Now in 2017 it reached Singapore. (Oddly enough, films (movies) often are shown in Singapore before they reach the UK and USA.) Where next?

More information from:
www.srt.com.sg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_to_God_(play)
http://handtogod.co.uk

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share my posts.