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Happy Endings - A play for everyone
By Mayo Martin, TODAY | Posted: 16 July 2007 1124 hrs


FINALE: Happy Endings is a story laden with grief.


A happy ending is imperative. So insists one of the characters in W!ld Rice's Happy Endings: Asian Boys Vol 3, quoting E M Forster's gay novel, Maurice, as the play approaches, well, its climax.

For a story laden with grief, that's a tough task even for the gifted Alfian Sa'at. The playwright based his supposedly last gay play and the final instalment of the Asian Boys trilogy on Peculiar Chris, the first Singaporean gay novel by London-based Johann Lee.

The first half revolves around Christopher Han and his junior college friends: The strong-willed first girlfriend Sylvia, the flamboyant but reliable Nicholas, and Chris' first boyfriend, the closet toughie and Bob Dylan fan Kenneth. The second part revisits their lives 15 years on. Chris returns from London for a visit to find that Sylvia has become a gay rights activist, happy "Nicole" is now the hedonistic druggie Nick, and Kenneth, a divorced conservative still grappling with his sexuality.

Despite the linear premise of the plot, Happy Endings is all but. It begins with a scene of the author, Joe, agonising over his novel-in-progress with a mysterious muse challenging his every move. From then on, it's a story within a story within a story.

There are quick, playful shifts in perspective and subplots. Credit goes to the actors, Robin Goh (The Mysterious Muse) and Karen Tan (Sylvia) — and director Ivan Heng for skillfully reining in the material.

Memorable witty punchlines and insider jokes abound in Happy Endings. But there is a sense of heartfelt urgency in Sa'at's words — the real star of the play — which grapples two-fold with the idea of writing and the gay issue in Singapore. He takes a stab at Section 377A of the Penal Code and the criminalisation of homosexuality with as much viciousness as he sneers at apathetic gays preoccupied with gym-time. When the question of whether the issue is personal or political is raised, Sa'at throws it back at you. His job, for now, is done.

This play is, as it should be, for everyone. But judging from the scattered sounds of choked tears in the crowd, it resonates better with some.

Happy Endings is on until July 29 at the Drama Centre Theatre. - TODAY/ra