18 October 1999
The New Straits Times: Life & Times
This Emily is a real gem
by Suraya Al-Attas


IVAN Heng was a gem as Emily in Emily of Emerald Hill. Clad in embroidered kebaya, beaded slippers and bedecked in diamonds, Heng slipped into the role of the classic Nyonya character with apparent ease.

From the first swagger up the stage, there was no mistaking that Heng was Emily.

Indeed, the Stella Kon monodrama - which has been staged numerous times with different actresses including Leow Puay Tin, Pearlly Chua and Margaret Chan - could have easily turned into a drag show.

It's to director Krishen Jit and Heng's credit that it did not.

Although there were moments when one felt that the play was going in that direction - Heng's portrayal of Emily in her heyday was a little over-the-top initially - the actor's excellent control and superb comedic timing ensured otherwise.

Heng gave a truly remarkable performance as Emily.

For a man to play the part of a woman (and do it well, at that) is in itself a huge task to take on. But to hold the audience's attention for nearly three hours (without the assistance of co-stars)... now that's another story altogether.

Yet the Singaporean actor - whose other stage works include The Crucible, Richard III, M. Butterfly and Journey West and film credits are Singapore's Army Daze and sci-fi movie The Fifth Element (as Gary Oldman's sidekick) - handled it extremely well, seemingly without much effort.

Heng was funny without being too campy, sad without being hysterical or melodramatic.

And his facial expressions as he switched from one character to another - from an innocent child bride entering her husband's family home for the first time to an overbearing mother who constantly puts pressure on his eldest born, Richard ("Mummy is very proud you. You won't make Mummy sad, will you? You will do everything Mummy wants you to do, won't you?") right down to imitating Emily's "very English" father-in-law - were absolutely priceless.

You laugh with Emily as she shows her cunning in winning her mother-in-law's affections; regales us with her famous babi buah keluak recipe; and delivers barbed remarks to her dinner guests with such saccharine-sweetness.

And when a bewildered Emily reflects upon her tragedies - her son's suicide; her husband going astray; and her children, Charlie, Edward and Doris, wanting to escape from her - your heart goes out to her.

"I didn't do anything wrong...," cries a forlorn Emily as she mourns her lost loves and glory.

The pain, the loneliness, the emptiness Emily feels as she tries to make sense of her son's suicide (presumably to get away from her) and her husband's refusal to see her as he lay dying in a hospital bed is almost palpable.

You weep for the child that she was - a 14-year-old girl (abandoned by her mother after her beloved father died), who was thrust into a Peranakan household when she was married off to a man twice her age and the woman she had become because of her childhood.

Heng moved his audience to tears almost without sheddding tears himself. It takes a truly fine actor to be able to elicit such emotions from his audience.

Fifteen years on and more than 100 performances later, the cleverly-written Emily of Emerald Hill - which recently ended its run at The Actors Studio Theatre - has clearly stood the test of time.

NO DRAG SHOW ... Heng in his element as the tragic Emily.

© Copyright 1999, The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad. All Rights Reserved.

Go to the Dramalab website archive of Emily of Emerald Hill.