Stunning sequel to 2022 Huayi hit showcases Nine Years Theatre at their best.
In 2022, Nine Years Theatre (NYT) took on the challenge of headlining the Esplanade’s Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts, to present a play on the massive Esplanade Theatre stage, the first time the company produced a show for the space. As intimidating as it might have been, NYT ultimately chose to go with an original work that focused on an intimate family drama, weaving together both heart and humour into a sincere, believable script, with stellar performances that left audience members moved, and more appreciative of their own families.
In theatre, most plays are completely self-contained, and few are given the opportunity to expand beyond their original narrative. NYT has been given the unique opportunity to carry on the story of Between You And Me with a second headliner at this year’s Huayi – a sequel titled Everything For You. Once again written and directed by NYT artistic director Nelson Chia, this new story is set two years after the events of the previous show, where the central family faces brand new changes that threaten to break them apart.
As the play begins, we see cousins Min (Wendi Wee Hian) and Kai (Jayden Lim Jun De) framing the entire production for us, catching us up and reminding us of who’s who in the family, and what they do, before telling the story of Everything For You. Appropriately, with Huayi taking place during the Lunar New Year, the first major scene sees a family gathering at the family home in Whampoa, now occupied by grandaunt Mei Qing (Liow Shi Suen) and husband Zhi Gang (Johnny Toh), who is recovering from a stroke. Wong Chee Wai’s two-storey movable set, from the original production, feels like it was taken straight out of an actual house, well-furnished and complete with stairs and festive decor. Among the creatives, Tan Jia Hui has also done an impressive job of finding the right clothes for the cast, changing costumes in almost every scene, always hip and fashionable, while subtly also reflecting each character’s personality.
Having just experienced our own share of visitations the weekend before, it feels almost like deja vu as the family members enter one after the other, and begin to update each other on their lives. Mother of Min, veteran stage actress and second sister Shi Lin (Sharon Au) is going through a mid-life crisis as she attempts to stay relevant becoming an internet celebrity, whipping out her phone and constantly hunting for content in the hopes of getting that taste of online validation, while her husband Ze Dong (Mitchell Fang) entertains her antics.
Kai’s mother, a divorced doctor and eldest sister Shi Qi (Jean Ng) reveals a surprise – she’s been dating again for the last three months, and the rest of the family awaits with bated breath to meet the mystery man, only to be greeted by youngest sister Shi Jie (Mia Chee), who turns up on their doorstep after returning from Australia without her partner, supposedly taking advantage of post-pandemic restrictions being lifted after missing her family for so long. When Shi Qi’s date Fu Cheng (Rayson Tan) arrives – it’s in the guise of a Cai Shen Ye, goofy and a little strange, but his heart is in the right place, only to be greeted by a gloomy Kai.
Everything For You is, at its core, a play about change and adjusting to change, particularly difficult when you care for everyone involved, and want only what’s best for them. Throughout, there is a constant push and pull of balancing what we want for ourselves and what we want for others, manifesting in the form of tension and fear. On its surface, it may seem like a straightforward melodrama, but playwright Nelson has woven such intricate themes that present themselves as threads through every storyline, as they each learn how to better love and communicate their feelings to each other.
Speaking of change, what really ties the play together is how everyone is essentially adapting to life after the sisters’ mother and family matriarch has passed on, each one figuring out how best to navigate the world without such an important figure in their lives anymore. What then happens is that they end up relying even more on each other, or retreat into themselves, changing the way they all relate. One particularly interesting relationship is between Shi Lin and Min, the former finding herself acting in a small play directed by the latter. There’s an echo from the first play where Shi Lin and her late mother performed in the same play, and similar tensions arise when they attempt to separate the personal from the professional.
It is also these scenes that playwright Nelson gets a chance to add in interesting commentary about the local theatre scene, where Shi Lin laments how she’s afraid the future generations will no longer appreciate Mandarin theatre, or how she feels the youths in theatre keep ‘innovating’, while in fact, most of these experimentations have already been attempted by their forebears in the 90s, and that they no longer know their history or remember their past. In knowing this, Shi Lin comes down so hard on Min because she only wants her first major gig to be a success, and Sharon Au shines with these lines, sounding lost and uncertain how best to deal with her personal crisis.
Paralleling that is Shi Qi’s relationship with her son, and how much of a one-eighty he displays every time Fu Cheng is mentioned or in the same room, only for Fu Cheng to make the astute observation that it is likely Kai simply doesn’t want Shi Qi to get hurt. Finally, Shi Jie, with a heart of gold, doesn’t want her own health problems to get in the way of others, constantly wanting to put up a strong front so others are not inconvenienced. Even between the older couple, they lament how much things have changed, from broadcast channel names, to dealing with the realities of Zhi Gang’s life after the stroke. In a way, all these narratives reflect our fears of change and our shifting place in the world – and most importantly, how do we care for the ones we love without being overbearing. What’s most important is to ensure love remains enduring, and that the intent is in the right place.
Even at two and a half hours without an intermission, there is a briskness to the play that feels akin to binge watching a TV serial, constantly wondering what’s going to happen next. We feel invested in each of these characters and their stories, each one intersecting and seeping into the other, where not only are there plenty of poignant moments of sagely advice and witticisms; there’s also plenty of silly, laugh out loud moments that stem from the puns and situational comedy, or sometimes, you simply find yourself breaking into a smile, watching them enjoy a whiskey together, or chilling out with green tea and gossip at the onsen.
To that end, there is a universality to Everything For You that makes it one of NYT’s best and more sincere works, speaking candidly and truthfully to and for a Singaporean audience, where it is likely that everyone in the audience will relate to at least one of the characters featured. And even as a play meant for Huayi, characters are effectively bilingual, swapping between dialect and English, representing exactly the mishmash of languages native to our tongue, alongside the inclusion of minority characters played by Farah Ong and David Puvan, both also fully-fleshed out and given their own backstories and not simply there for tokenism.
Through its run, Everything For You reaches several emotional high points, but finds its peak as the family gather at the columbarium to pay respects to the dead. Multiple storylines are resolved by this point, but Rayson Tan, as Guo Cheng, delivers some of the play’s most important lines here, explaining how there are times we should think more of preparing for the best, rather than the worst. We can only promise the best versions of ourselves given the right circumstances, and with that in mind, we should strive to make the most of the good times, rather than constantly worrying about when it ends, and being welcome to change rather than fear it.
Death and loss are as important to Everything For You as are celebrations and love, and the two find themselves always poised in perfect harmony. Watching this stage family laugh and cry together, we recall our own feelings in the wake of the pandemic, getting a chance to have everyone under the same roof once again, and taking every chance to snap photos together, finally together again after so long. As much as they’re each going through their own issues, for a moment, you watch them and see how close they are to each other, and believe in the realness of their relationships, briefly happy during this festive season.
Lightning rarely strikes twice, but Everything For You is proof that when NYT sticks to their guns and does what they do best, focusing on crafting a relatively light but realistic family drama that hits all the right notes, feeling all-too real as it fills you with a sense of familiarity and warmth. Everything For You isn’t just a good sequel, it’s a worthy, feel-good production in its own right that covers a plethora of Singaporean issues and worries, and still manages to reassure us that everything will be alright, as long as you cherish the ones you love. To gather and see the original cast back onstage together again is nothing short of a theatre miracle, and watching them feels like coming home after a long time away, and certainly, an absolute joy to witness NYT at their best.
Photos by Jack Yam, courtesy of Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay
Everything For You played from 16th to 17th February 2024 at the Esplanade Theatre. More information available here
Watch Between You And Me online (till 25th February 2024) here
Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts runs from 16th to 25th February 2024 at the Esplanade. Tickets and full programme available here
Production Credits:
| Playwright/ Director: Nelson Chia Producer: Mia Chee Cast Jean Ng, Sharon Au, Mia Chee, Rayson Tan, Johnny Ng, Liow Shi Suen, Wendi Wee Hian, Mitchell Fang, Jayden Lim Jun De, Farah Ong & David Puvan Set Designer Wong Chee Wai Lighting Designer Genevieve Peck Sound Designer Vick Low Costume Designer Tan Jia Hui Production Hair Ashley Lim Production Makeup The Make-Up Room, Andy Lim (for Sharon Au) Production Manager Cindy Yeong Technical Manager Huang Xiangbin Stage Manager Keira Lee Assistant Stage Managers Justina Khoo Chong Wee Nee Surtitle Translator & Operator Quek Yee Kiat Props Master Loo An Ni Wardrobe Manager Lim Zhiying Sound Operator Raymond Goei Radio Frequency Operator Jean Yap Lighting Programmer Tan Yi Kai Stage Crew Zamier A Bakar |
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