Emily of Emerald Hill

On Sunday afternoon I took my mother and a girlfriend to see the nyonya play "Emily of Emerald Hill" at the Wawasan Open University in Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah. I'm delighted to say it was quite packed - apparently after my article about Pearlly Chua, the Seremban-based actress who plays the eponymous main and only character, came out in Star Weekender a couple of weeks ago, there was a surge of response.

The whole thing took nearly two hours which included a 15-min break, and Pearlly (or should I say Emily) held us in thrall throughout it all. She was really very good, considering it was a monologue and there was only her on stage.

However, I think I was slightly misled during the interview - Pearlly had said that this Emily was going to be a sharper, nastier, scheming woman. In fact, she actually came across as an ordinary obviously ambitious Singaporean woman of the times (1950s) who, due to some unfortunate events, had her own fair share of tragedies. She just didn't strike me as a conniving cow at all, and in one particular scene where she was supposed to have controlled her son to the extent that he took his own life, it just didn't seem a good enough reason for him to have done so!

Having said that, Pearlly did very well. She portrayed the character going through her life, from current to, at times, her youth when she recounted how she entered the Gan household as a young bride, to her old age towards the end, very well. So much so that she made my mother cry - and that's not often. I can vouch for that!

If you ever have the chance to see the play, do. It's an insight into a typical Singaporean nyonya household, which was probably true of other Chinese households (OAOMs, as my British sister-in-law used to call us - Over Ambitious Oriental Mothers), and a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Well done Pearlly!