Prologue: The Waiter
Joshua takes the stage. He is the waiter and storyteller. He introduces the play. It is a tale of life and death, of selfishness and sacrifice, and mostly, it is a tale about second chances.
Act 1 - May 1997
The Tale of Richard and James
Abel Cheah (left) and Chooi Kheng Yee/Chewie(right) acts as Richard and James, two best friends. Richard is rich, and James is less rich. Richard has the world going for him, and decides to take his buddy for a luxurious meal.
The waiter makes a brief cameo to take their orders. James asks for a maggi goreng, which is embarassing to Richard. As the waiter leaves, Tai Koh (played by Daniel the spartan) mocks the rich boy, and taunts him into a fight.
Richard, being very proud, engages TaiKoh in a fight despite James' attemps to hold him back.
Let me interupt the story here and tell you that on the first day of practice. Their fight scene looked very gay. They jumped on each other and rolled around and. Yeah. But by today's final performance, they drew loud oohs from the crowd and some even thought Abel got injured.
Richard, in a stunning maneuver, kills TaiKoh, and suddenly wallows in confusion and fear knowing he is now a murderer.
But the mild and shy James suddenly takes control of the scene, snatches the knife and jacket from Richard, and pushes Richard away just as the police comes. He cries "Remember His love, Richard. Have a good life!".
As the police
(Meng Hong. Sorry no picture of you. Couldn't find any) takes the boy away, Richard cries out, "I don't deserve this!"
While James' sacrifice may seem idiotic. That was what Jesus did for all of us. He took the blame for our sins that we may have the opportunity to have eternity with Him.
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Act 2 - June 2006The Tale of Ah Beng and Ah Lien
The most lighthearted scene in the play, the spotlight opens with Ah Beng (Gideon Lam) sleeping at home. I must say that it is pleasing to me that I managed to incorporate what has now become a trademark in all my entertainment related material: AhBeng and AhLien :)
Ah Lien (Grace Eu) enters the home, wakes Ah Beng up, and tells him that she' pregnant. Ah Beng is repulsed by it as he never intended to be parent, having a phobia of kids.
Ah Lien spends the rest of the scene trying to convince him that having kids isn't such a bad thing, plus, they have no choice but to carry through with it now.
Ah Lien finally uses the example of God, of how being omniscient knew that humanity would choose to turn away from Him and fall into condemnation. Yet He did not abandon us, nor did He revert to plan B. Instead, He carried through with us.
Ah Beng concedes, and agrees to have just this one kid. But too late, as Ah Lien reveals that she has twins :)
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Act 3 - March 2007The Tale of Donatella and Secretary Debbie
In a 'montage' of events, Donatella (center, played by Jacintha Tagal) makes a multi million dollar advertising proposal to Mr.Everyday (Joel Yim), only to be interupted by her secretary, Debbie (Jamie Koo), who tells her that Donna's closest aunt is in hospital and has an important message.
Donna shoves her secretary away, determined to complete her proposal.
Then she makes a proposal to Mr.World (played by mua in a cameo. No lines.), only to be interupted again by her Aunt, who apparently, has been to the hospital 16 times the past year.
Donna tells Debbie firmly and angrily that she'll return the call later, and will fire her if she loses this client. That would be me. Haha.
After the day is done, Secretary Debbie tells her boss once again that her Aunt called earlier, but had passed away an hour ago, and that her lawyer had called and left Donnatella with everything.
Donna, after 2 seconds of silence, tells her secretary to attend the funeral on her behalf as she has an appoinment with Mr.Beautiful for a multi-multi million dollar contract.
And that's how many Christians are like (myself included), who have been blessed with a lot, yet we are so far from who we proclaim to be our father, best friend, etc...
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Act 4 - Last NightThe waiter and his tale
This is the final scene, where Richard, Donatella, and Ah Beng, three good friends, sit together and reflect on life. Richard reveals his secret of James' innocence ten years ago, finally admitting that his life is a product of James' sacrifice.
Instead of condemning him, Donatella goes on to say that even she too has committed murder, when she shunned her aunt because of her busyness. She goes on to say that most of us, have at one point or another, removed that which is important to us.
This play does not condone murder, but elevates and equates ignorance to murder.
The sombre moment ends with Ah Beng receiving a call from his wife who is about to deliver, and a hope is born.
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Josh the waiter comes up on stage, and says these words:
And so, the story ends here, but the choices begin for you and me. Do we know and remember the love of Jesus Christ, that He was willing to die for our sins despite our imperfections and our potential for… disaster? Do we know of His love, but have set it aside for things less important?
Let us celebrate life. The perfect life of Christ. And may we never forget His love and sacrifice that bought us all a second chance to live well and live free from the threat of sin and condemnation. A blessed Easter to everyone, and thank you for your time. Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Endddddddddddddddd.
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That's the play.
So that's the story. I told it not because I'm vain, but because one should always hear the story of, or stories about, or stories like, Jesus Christ.
Happy Easter.
(thanks to Abel, who wrote the thing with me and did the other half of the work. To the cast up there for staying back and putting up with my tantrums. Paul, stupid boy, for making the multimedia work. When Paul does it. I don't worry. Terence and Jaclyn for doing the PA. The big bosses for approving this. And the big big Boss up there who showed up all the time.)
*All photos by Caeme Chin*
