Partner Programmes 2007/08
Partner: Youth Empire
Fat Kids Are Harder To Kidnap, a theatrical production co-presented by the Speak Good English Movement and Youth Empire, and performed by How Drama company, had a whirlwind run over the course of 3 Wednesdays from 5 to 19 March 2008.
Presenting 31 plays in 1 hour, Fat Kids Are Harder To Kidnap is an interactive production where the audience gets to pick the order of the plays performed by calling out the number of the play they would like to see performed when prompted by a cast member!
There was an excited buzz in the air as the crowd milled in and took their seats with lists of the plays in hand, unsure of what to expect from this interactive production. Only a clothesline of calendar pages with the numbers 1-31 hung teasingly in front of them across the stage as they waited for the show to start, scanning their lists for plays that appealed to them.
Before long, the show got underway with cast members Saqib and Carla warming up the crowd and explaining the rules of the play – once any of them shouts “Next!”, that will be the cue for the audience to call out as loud as they can the number of the play they want to see performed.
And with that, the production got underway as the Carla and Saqib shouted “Next!” and the audience battled to shout the loudest to get their choice heard!
From then onwards, it was a non-stop high energy display of theatrical skill and discipline.
Over the course of 1 hour, give or take a few seconds, the audience was treated to 31 plays on all kinds of topics, at times poignant, and mostly hilarious. From the uZap to inflation, foreign brides to illegal money-lending, Fat Kids Are Harder To Kidnap was a smorgasbord of slices of Singapore life served up How Drama style!
And as the timer on the wall at the back of the stage reached zero, the last play concluded, leaving an empty clothesline hanging behind the performers and a theatre full of whoops and applause from the audience.
