A crabby affair

An English lyrical play set in the Qing Dynasty, Toy Factory's latest production brings back to life a play featuring 7 beautiful poems from Cao Xue Qin’s A Dream Of The Red Chamber.

Set in a respectable household in the Qing Dynasty, 5 daughters come forth on the eve of their father's 60th birthday. For the 5 ladies, whose personalities sparkle as irresistibly as flower diamonds, their twin mission is clear - to prepare the most delicately complex feast of crabs for their patriarch, as well as the setting up of an all-women poetry club.

Acclaimed Malaysian actress Nell Ng will be re-instating her role in the play, while stellar actresses Emma Yong, Karen Tan and Yeo Yann Yann will join this re-staging of The Crab Flower Club. as well as promising new-comer Ang Ru-Chen.

As each of them conjures up their inner recipe, the 5 ladies assemble their intelligence, talents and grace nakedly on the table for this exchange of emotions and quick-witted verse. Words are pickled, skewered and boiled; wit is seared and charred; expressions stirred and steamed to perfection as each daughter reveals her menu of love.

Fifo speaks to playwright and director Goh Boon Teck about how crabs and women are intricately linked.

1. Why pick crabs, to be the culinary focus of this play?

Chinese have been enjoying the delight of crab meat and roe for over a thousand years. Crab is also one of the main topics for poem creation in Cao Xue Qin's Dream Of The Red Chamber. Crab's physical movement (side-ward) and its lack of intestine are used in Chinese poems to describe man of low morality and short of compassion. 

2. The play was based in the Qing dynasty, of these 5 daughters and their father, giving us an insight to their intelligence, talent and desire. How different do you think women in today's world differ from these 5 daughters from that period with regards to their intelligence, talent and desire too?

Women in modern days are liberated from family and "father", unlike the characters in my play who have so many considerations to care just to compose a poem and being creative. But, in their confined world, they seems to have more passionate energy to create and compose.

3. How does the legendary Cao Xue Qin's masterpiece Dream of the Red Chamber influence your work, and why did you pick this piece?

It was from his text and imageries that I created TCFC. I would say that Dream Of The Red Chamber helped me to create a nursery so that I can grow my story, ideas and characters in it.

The Crab Flower Club is on at the Drama Centrefrom AUg 20 to 29. Tickets from Sistic.