Ah Steve

‘I’ve always been a good Catholic boy. I’ve been baptized, go to church every Sunday, and confess even when I didn’t do any sins. And now at 30, I think I know how to be happy.’

‘Ah Steve’ is a story of a Chinese boy who prays to his dead mother everyday. On Sundays, he prays to Jesus.

This Christmas, there is a problem at the church. The youth wing of the Church wants to put up a nativity play and Ah Steve wants to be part of the show. However, because ‘all the man parts in the show tok in hard bible words I cannot pronounce’, Ah Steve has to play a woman part - Mother Mary.

The problem is, Ah Steve feels very happy donning Mary’s costume and lipstick. It reminds him of his Mama’s shoulder pads, and the mascara he used to see his Aunt Tabitha wipe off her face, and of My Little Ponies! Horse dolls he never had a chance to play with because his staunch Catholic Aunty Tabitha thinks it is a sin!

Ah Steve is a story of a boy who woke up one day crying because he felt happy to be called Mary, even if for a day. It is a story of lip gloss, Church hymns, Chinese ghost stories, and of course, My Little Ponies.

Ah Steve is in English with bits of Hokkien.

Princess: Funny, daring and real is what i would use to describe Ah Steve. A journey discovering of oneself, realizing that you are not what you seem to be. Revealing of secrets hidden inside and realizing and accepting who you truly are even though your love ones may condemn you for it. An entertaining and true-to-life art play which is so real that you can just imagine it happening around you or even in your own family. Even though there isn't much action which i expected, but the play which is English base has bits of Hokkien vulgar words that one wonders why they didn't put a 18 and above sign on the entrance. a kid who watched the play was asked by the parent what do they think about the play? and the reply was " i don't like it, there is too much bad words said..."

I've got to hand it down to Mark Beau for such original script, his expression in the play was so real that you wonder if he is acting as who he is. Johann Lim - the last time i saw him, he was acting as an outrageous durian builder. Now he take on a different role and become a psychiatric doctor for Ah Steve, wearing straight smooth shirt, long black pants with tie. Personally i find his acting this time to be....well...polite. He acted as the analytical doctor who has a tint of craziness, teaching Ah Steve to do his monkey jumping "hee hee haa haa's". I liked Valerie, i think that she was really natural and i can just imagine her to be one of my over-protective, sticking into everybody's business aunt. But I'm not sure of her outfit cause it make her look like a mixed Indian lady than a western like chinese aunt. Carol Wu is pretty as usual, at first she looked very familiar to me at first but later found out that she was a talent for a few advertisment. She reminds me of a la-la, talkative, and very 'chinese' girl in the play.

I liked the light setting for the play, as it guides the audience view and set where the story goes. The decoration is very simple, there are not much backdrop and the stage is separate into three part. On the far right is the doctor's office, middle is in church with the aunt and the left is at home. when the story moves from one side to the other, the light which is in the shape of a square box would shine. Making the cast to stand inside the box, so the audience would know where Ah Steve is.

Rate by Princess : 7/10