Flights of Laughter

The premise is simple. A swinging bachelor juggles his three air stewardess girlfriends to clockwork accuracy thanks to a dependable flight schedule. A spanner in the works (in this case the introduction of the new Airbus A380, and the volcanic ash cloud) is all it takes to unravel his perfect arrangement.

The comedy is written in the tradition of the French "bedroom" farce, in which  the play centres around various sexual pairings and combinations of characters as they move through improbable plots and slamming of doors.

Other than holding the record for being the longest running comedy in the history of French theatre as well as London's West End, Boeing Boeing has clearly hooked Singaporean fans, for W!ld Rice to have staged it three times in the past decade, with the first two stagings already having attracted over 25,000 people.

The bachelor in question, Bernard, is played by Adrian Pang, who delivers an effortless performance as a suave, charming bachelor who says all the right things. His friend Robert, played by Daniel York, visits him and tries to figure out how he does it all. York delivers an exceptionally spirited performance as the 'best friend who tries to hold everything together and will die trying'. Siti Zainal plays Roza, the maid who logistically manages the juggling antics of Bernard and his three girlfriends, but her limited role keeps her character rather uni-facted.

But the two male characters (and Roza) pale in comparison to the larger than life characters of the three air stewardesses - played by Emma Yong (who plays Junko, the Japan Airlines air stewardess), Chermaine Ang (who plays Janette, the Singapore Airlines girl), and Wendy Kweh (who plays the Cathay Pacific air stewardess, aptly named Jelly).

The three girls play caricatures of several levels all at the same time. That of the air stewardess and the various national/country stereotypes, as well as being women of their respective countries and cultures.

Chermaine Ang, playing the materialistic Singapore girl, for example, declares her true happiness upfront, that her true wish is to marry a really rich billionaire, but for now, Bernard will do. Emma Yong's character, Junko, is a flighty (pardon the pun) Japanese emotional girl, who falls in love with Bernard's friend Robert in the blink of an eye. Perhaps comparably, Wendy Kweh's Hong Kong character Jelly is the most sane of the three, but even then strongly opinionated and rather a handful. All three characters are beautifully played by the three actresses, whose caricatures are at times, pricelessly, spot-on.

It is easy to see why the comedy works with the right ingredients listed above, and it is a light-hearted play that has strong production values.

This being the 10th anniversary of what is one of Singapore's most reputable theatre companies, along with the recent funding cuts to various arts groups, does make one question the choice of re-staging Boeing Boeing. One would like to see our formidable theatre company staging more challenging new works, or in the case of classic works such as Animal Farm, develop the ideas further with each re-staging.

Boeing Boeing runs at The Drama Centre until Sep 4. Tickets from Sistic.