H IS FOR HANTU – ACSIS CLUB OUTING 21/08/09

Dear One & All,

On the 21^st of August 2009, a group of ACSIS members together with our teacher Mr. Ferdinand Quek, went to Alliance Franςaise Theatre to watch the musical-comedy H IS FOR HANTU. The musical comedy was about a young Malay boy who did not want to upgrade from kampong to HDB. He wanted to fight for the rights of the Hantus who resided in the kampong. Even though the odds were against him, the Hantus helped him to save the kampong. However, the HDB officer is a stubborn woman who wants to get rid of the kampong. However, every night she mysteriously returns to the kampong looking for something. She is possessed by her best friend who died many years ago in that very kampong…

Directed by Mr. Jonathan Lim, one of Singapore’s leading directors, H IS FOR HANTU is one of the best local productions I have personally seen in my life. The cast was excellent and so full of life. The quality of acting was amazing. Each character was as humorous as ever. The audience roared with laughter and many almost fell of their seats because this play was a satire of urbanisation and technology. The characters interacted with the audience and this enhanced the ambience in the theatre.

The script was flawless. It injected comedy at the right points of time and the flow of the story was indeed praiseworthy. The dialogue was relevant and the setting was awesome (especially the cute little MRT at the back). The stage came alive and the props were beautiful. Moreover, this was no ordinary musical. It involved the skilful use of Indonesian Shadow Puppetry and other forms of puppetry which were really effective.

Personally, I never watch locally-produced musicals because I do not really think that they can match up to the standards of international ones but my opinions have since changed after watching H IS FOR HANTU. I could not stop laughing throughout the play and I felt that those who did not get an opportunity to watch the play, YOU HAVE MISSED A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME opportunity because the audience were heavily involved- we were singing and clapping along with the characters. This musical was a unique experience for me because it had a Singaporean flavour to it and it was very well incorporated with the supernatural stuff. Furthermore, the songs in this play were really catchy and the singers were Xcellent!

If we had a chance to do H IS FOR HANTU, I think we would surely enjoy doing it as a club. After this play, I had an entire new impression of Hantus and trust me, if you watch it, you would to. Congratulations to ALL the cast and THANK YOU to everyone who took time off their busy schedules to come down. I think you’ll agree with me that we had a WHALE OF A TIME and we learnt alot of Malay words too.

By the way, if you still have no clue about what this musical comedy is about and you are eager to know more, go and GOOGLE it out:)

Written By: R.R.Pravin, 5.04 Numbers, 23 August 2009