Caught “What Is Man?” yesterday at the Esplanade. It will only be on for 2 days (yesterday and today) at the Esplanade Theatre). The performance starts at 8pm and lasted till about 11.30pm, including 20 minutes intermission break. There is a total of 28 scenes of which 15 are be played before and the remaining 13 scenes are played after the intermission break. There is also a post show dialog session which lasted for about an hour with the director (Edward Lam) and the actors and actresses.

Nine men coincidentally named after nine outlaws from the Chinese classic The Water Margin audition for roles in a gangster movie. Through nine monologues, the would-be heroes struggle to assert their manhood in their RPG (role-playing game) underworld, revealing the frailties and foibles of the unique creature called man.

Directed by Hong Kong’s eminent director Edward Lam and starring a cast of talented actors from Taiwan, this production is produced by the National Chiang Kai-Shek Cultural Center & Edward Lam Dance Theatre.

Advisory: This production contains coarse language and adult themes. Recommended for audiences aged 16 years and above.

Ticketing (SGD): $38, $48, $68, $88

(Performed in Mandarin, with English subtitles)

The tickets cost $26 (student price) and on top of that we need to pay $2 SISTIC fees. And no matter which channel of booking you made (online, phone, counter), YOU WILL still need to pay the SISTIC fees. SISTIC must be earning huge loads of money just by selling tickets.

Overall I would say the show is quite value for money (I will not pay $88 to see this – most expensive ticket) and funny at some parts, but after the whole show, I realize that I don’t know what is going on.

Perhaps if the whole show is performed in Hokkien, I would find it better. But that would never happen as this show is for the Singapore Chinese Festival of Arts 2008.

Happened to both of us that we are thirsty during the intermission break and we decided to get a drink. We got a shocked of our life when we discovered that a can of Coke/Sprite cost S$4.00, a bottle of small Evan mineral water also cost S$4.00 and 1 glass of orange juice cost S$7.00. We bought the can of coke eventually and it is definitely no doubt the most expensive can of coke we have ever drink in my 23 years of life.

You can get a similar can of coke for only like $0.60 in supermarkets or provision shop. The profit margin is at least 600%.

By the way Esplanade Co Ltd, the company who run Esplanade is a non-profit organization and registered as a charity under the Charities Act. How ironic.