Review of "The Bride Always Knocks Twice" / 她门 (Stage play)

I must confess, I'm not an avid theatre-goer. I used to see a number of stage plays when I was in school and that was when we got subsidised tickets at prices which were affordable then. However, after leaving school, I didn't approach plays with the same level of passion as before and it was only till last year when I started to watch stage productions again. There were some titles over the years which did interest me but sad to say, sometimes the ticket prices were too high (in my opinion though) or that the timing wasn't suitable for me. When the moon and stars were in alignment again, that was when I made a comeback to watching plays and boy, this is an addictive and very cost-intensive hobby. ^__^

Grabbing the title of being the first stage play I've watched this year is "The Bride Always Knocks Twice" (Chinese title is 她门) by the Theatre Practice (实践剧场). The story features a bride who ran away from her wedding and accidentally chances upon a house where six other women from various eras and backgrounds live in. Through an exploration of the reason that led to the bride running away, the play also showcases the lives of the other women in the house and what led them to "seek refuge" here where time seems to have come to a standstill.

As this play was written by two people i.e. Jonathan Lim and Liu Xiaoyi, the difference between their writing skills is rather obvious because the pacing of the story is uneven. The first act was slower in contrast to the second part and there were some developments which I thought were too draggy. In addition, I felt that there should have been more emphasis on the women in the house and how they came to be there but that was sorely lacking. It felt as if the writers decided to tease the viewer with small snippets of information but that didn't form a comprehensive picture of the women's pasts. As such, I felt as if I was none the wiser about what was binding these women to this unusual house and why they didn't want to take the first step out into the "real" world. Perhaps they think that their "halfway house" is the real world and what they are more at ease with. However, without an idea of what motivated them to remain status quo, I didn't feel much emotional attachment to the characters. Of course, I understand this is supposed to be dark humour and it probably means a lot of things are open to interpretation rather than being conveyed directly but there are too many points which are not explained so it can be a bit annoying (at least to me).

Despite this, I think the acting was quite good and I particularly liked characters such as the 60s -70s movie star, the Sultan's concubine and the Samsui Woman. Not only did they provide lots of laughter to spice up the play, I thought their characters were most interesting and endearing to me. Kudos to Su Chun Ying, Siti Khadlijah Zainal and Hung Chit Wah Felix! As for the lead i.e. the runaway bride played by Isabella Chiam, I do like her acting but her character didn't go down that well with me.

On the whole, this was a OK production which I felt needed more fine-tuning to make it more palatable to the general public. If the pacing of the story was managed better and there was more exploration of the characters who all had potential to be interesting stories on their own, I think I might have liked this better.