Sunday, November 04, 2007

Love, Harmony, and National Service

A skittish production
of insensitive sensibilities
which is not to be taken seriously
by Ethan Tan

Cast

Chinese boy
- Father
- Mother

Indian boy
- Friend 1
- Friend 2

Malay girl
- Mother
- Father

Scene One - Chinese boy’s home.


CHINESE BOY – LOOKING AT NEWSPAPER

Oh my god, I’ve got NS!

FATHER

What? Really?

MOTHER

Ah, why so bad luck one?

CHINESE BOY

This can’t be happening to me! I don’t want to waste my time at NS!

FATHER

Quick, think! How can you get exemption?

MOTHER – HUGS CHINESE BOY

My baby, my baby!

Scene Two – Indian boy’s home.

INDIAN BOY – LOOKING AT NEWSPAPER

Oh my god, I’ve got NS!

FRIEND 1

It’s okay macha, I went before.

INDIAN BOY

And how was it?

FRIEND 1

Fun, fun, fun.

FRIEND 2

You can shoot a gun, you know.

INDIAN BOY - SARCASTICALLY

Yippie.

FRIEND 1

You can make friends.

INDIAN BOY

Whoo hoo.

FRIEND 2

You can make girlfriends.

INDIAN BOY – GENUINELY EXCITED

Oh, wow! That does sound fun!

FRIEND 1

Told you so.

THEY WALK AWAY

Scene Three – Malay Girl’s Home.

MALAY GIRL – LOOKING AT NEWSPAPER

Oh my god, I’ve got NS!

MOTHER

Ah, it’s about time too. All your cousins went for it already.

FATHER

Praise god!

MOTHER – HAPPY, TAKES OUT PHONE

I must tell everyone I know!

MALAY GIRL

Well, I guess it’ll be fun.

Scene Four – National Service Camp Somewhere.

MALAY GIRL, CHINESE BOY, INDIAN BOY – RUNNING

CHINESE BOY

This isn’t so bad after all.

INDIAN BOY

Oh yes.

MALAY GIRL

I’ve learned so much since I got here!

CHINESE BOY

Yeah?

MALAY GIRL

Yeah! Don’t you think so?

INDIAN BOY

I do.

CHINESE BOY

Actually, yeah.

MALAY GIRL

See, we’re all friends now.

INDIAN BOY – HOLDS HER HAND

Good friends.

CHINESE BOY

National service works!

INDIAN BOY

It’s fun!

MALAY GIRL

It’s educational!

ALL TOGETHER – HOLDING HANDS

It’s national!

THE END

6 comments:

Daniel said...

I sense disdain towards said subjects. If not, the latter one.

siehjin said...

i can imagine the govt missing the point of your skit, thinking it's a great piece of propaganda for NS, and developing it into a 'muhibah' advert to be shown on national TV... =)

David BC Tan said...

i don't understand. why national service? why not a simple down to earth tale that has a more believable moral? why more propaganda? why not do a 'mind your language' thingy?
how about a localised and completely modified aesop's tale? running out of creative juice?

ethan said...

This, as you can imagine, was not done as an exercise in creativity. Or propaganda. Actually, I don't really know what it is if it isn't a satire.

David BC Tan said...

tat's the point - satire obviously is out of the question. there's got to be a point to the things we do...........

siehjin said...

satire has a point la. precisely why i said i can imagine the govt missing the point: they might be too thick to get it.

unless uncle david's comment was actually satirical too... this is getting too complex for me =P