M1 Playhouse 2012

Sunday, December 16, 2012
Secret War Journal[15 December 2012]
Hi guys! Today is the day many NUS Medical students had practised for, Playhouse 2012!

As I would quote from them, "Playhouse is a yearly intra-faculty drama competition of a tremendous scale. Each year, students from every batch come together to put up 5 different plays, each lasting an hour, to compete with their fellow Meddies. This serves as the finale event for the yearly Intra-Faculty Games organized in conjunction with the Sports Directorate." 

For this event to be so successful, you have to give credit to the management, the external vendors, and of course the students who invested countless hours to perform these wonderful plays. :)
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What I would like to focus today would be the first play during Playhouse 2012, also known as a play by the Team M1.

It is also the play that my friends Johnston and Trevor played a part in. :)

Synopsis
(I hope I described it accurately, hahas! I will update it when I confirm the details. :P)
The story revolves around a lady named Anna and her 5 unique (eccentric?) neighbours. It begins with the death of a fellow neighbour named Jansen which sparks off a series of emotional reactions and events involving the tenants of the apartment.

There are a few characters in the play.
First off, would be of course Anna, the main character. She portrays herself as an rational character among the tenants. Indeed, more often than not, she is the sensible character during the interactions with the other tenants.

Next, Grey. A highly cynical (& logical) guy who likes to think rationally but is secretly afraid of losing control. Personally, I do not see how he secretly fears losing control. Maybe I did not catch his reaction that demonstrates that. (I am such a poor audience. :O) He is at odds with Patricia, mainly due to their differences. [Last among the victims to die. Killed by a random burglar breaking into the house at the exact moment he joked about he would be killed, to demonstrate how absurd Anna sounded. Talk about speaking about the devil.]

Walter. Jansen's father. He is senile, possibly because he was not able to handle the grief from losing his son. A good portion of his airing time was spent emphasizing how he still believes Jansen is still alive and insisting the tenants to call him down for dinner. He has a granddaughter. (I am not sure what's her name. Sorry.) [2nd to die, after Jansen, supposedly from natural death. Witness: His granddaughter.]

Walter's granddaughter, named Lily. A child that was badly abused by her parents in the past. As a result, she keeps a doll by her side. She interacts with people often by referring to her doll or speaks in a third person manner. She reminds me of the character Alice in Alice in Wonderland. That makes her a bit creepy in nature, no? [4th to die. From aspirin overdose, taken secretly when Luke brings a box of aspirin to the living room.]

Zoe. A girl that loves the colour pink. Anything in pink is cool to her. She is rather self-centred, or it is just me. She was not really fond of Jansen. Thus she was not greatly affected by his death. She is a party animal and loves to socialise with people. [3rd to die, from a faulty power socket resulting in a lethal electric shock. She was drunk then, causing her brains to be addled.]

Patricia. Seemingly over-paranoid about many things, she stammers when she talks and thinks the whole world is out to get her, and the tenants. It worsened with the death of Jansen where she believes that Jansen's thyroid cancer can be spread by being near his corpse. When a new tenant is expected to live in Jansen's unit and the newcomer's name is known, she associates his name, Luke with Leukaemia, proclaiming him as an agent of death. Convinced, she is opposed with the idea of allowing Luke coming into the apartment as the new tenant. She is at odds with Grey due to her supposed delusions that Luke is a murderer and is out to kill every tenant in the apartment. [5th to die. Coaxed to commit suicide by Luke.]

Luke. The new tenant in the apartment. A calm character who is unfazed by all the deaths occurring in the apartment. He is often seen offering a helping hand to Anna, hoping to offer her as much aid as he could in the difficult times in the apartment. One notable conversation that occurred between him and Anna was how she coped with the neighbours in the tenant, each with their unique personalities. Towards the end of the play, he is revealed to be the mastermind of the deaths of the tenants, claiming it was for Anna's sake, leading Anna to be in despair. In the end, he is actually a doctor treating Anna's multiple personality disorder.