Good People

11 November 2007

I caught the 3pm matinee of the Haresh Sharma/Alvin Tan play "Good People"yesterday with a friend at the Necessary Stage's Black Box and I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. I have to admit that the main reason why I had initially intended to watch the play was to see how they were going to portray the addiction of one of the characters to marijuana (it is common knowledge that marijuana is not addictive, unlike hard drugs like heroin and LSD).

Good People is basically a play about issues - issues within relationships (and relating to people), religion, and the basic philosophies of life and death.

Just to give you a full view of the synopsis, here it is:

"Set in a hospice, Good People is about the ups and downs of the relationships between 3 people. Miguel is the new Medical Director trying to run a tight ship. Yati is a jaded nurse making the best of a ‘dead-end’ job. And Radha is the terminally-ill patient who is addicted to marijuana to relieve her pain.

As the three get to know each other, complications arise. If Radha get caught, will she be given the death penalty when she has only a few months to live?

Moving, humorous and evocative, Good People looks at urgent contemporary issues through the test of personal relationships."

I really enjoyed the chemistry between the 3 actors, there was that emotional/spiritual connection there that made the whole point of the play make more sense to me. Or maybe I was just projecting? (For those of you who know me personally, you will understand what this means.)

I could not understand why someone, at the end of the play and during the Q&A session, commented that the play was darkly depressing. No doubt there were moments during the play where it did get darkly morbid, but there were also moments where the terminally ill character Radha would make positive comments about looking at the brighter side of life. Or how she rationalises cancer -

"Cancer is a karmic disease. Before you go, the cancer burns off the karma of your past lives. So that you can move on with a clean slate...finally obtain moksha...be liberated. Isn't that wonderful?"

It made so much sense to me when I heard that. Radha also made other positive statements, as if trying to convince the other two characters not to make too much of a fuss over her. Or, if you look at it from another perspective that she might possibly have, trying to convince herself that everything will be all right.

Good People gets the thumbs up from me. =)

Note : For those people whom I have been able to titillate enough with this review for them to want to watch it for themselves, you may have to wait for a restaging of Good people, as today, 11 November, is the last day.