While on a break from studying law at NUS, Yap Yi Kai is taking on her biggest role yet! In Public Enemy, she plays the opinionated, driven Patricia Chee – one of the few people who stays in her father’s corner when he is shunned by everyone else for his opinions. Yi Kai chats with us about sharing her character’s passion and working with W!LD RICE for the first time.
Tell us about your character, Patricia Chee.
She’s a teacher, and she’s quite serious and driven and strong-headed. She’s not afraid to voice her opinions. She looks up to her father a lot, and almost worships him. Unlike her mum, who focuses more on how decisions will affect the family’s welfare, Patricia thinks that if her dad is doing something that’s morally and ethically right, he should go ahead and do it no matter the consequences.
How much do you identify with Patricia?
I definitely share her passion – I cannot stand passivity when people want something to happen. In fact, I respect Patricia for being as pro-active as she is. If it were not in her capacity to step up and take action, I bet she’d stand in the shadows and growl to herself. Which is something I would probably do, too!
Was it surprising to you to encounter such strong female characters in a play that was written almost 150 years ago?
Henrik Ibsen was very modern, in that way. In the run we just did, I played Patricia more fiercely than usual, just to try different things out, and Serene Chen – who plays my mum, Katherine – was also the firmest and fiercest I’ve seen and heard her. Just a few words here and there, and yet her power and presence really come through. I’m really realising now just how strong Katherine and Patricia are as characters. That said, though, the women do have to leave the room each time my uncle, the Minister, wants to talk to my father. When it first happened, the moment we exited the scene, I made a sad face at Serene and said, “I feel very… diminished.”
This is your first time working with W!LD RICE. What has that experience been like for you?
Most of the shows I’ve done have been with people closer to my age, like Joel Tan, and with smaller theatre groups. This is my first time working with a theatre company of this size and scale.
The first time I worked with W!LD RICE was in the two workshops for Hotel – they were overwhelming. I was terrified at first, especially because it was improv, with a big cast made up of super experienced actors. I felt very, very lost a lot of the time. My learning curve was extremely steep, especially since we were digging into a hundred years of Singapore history, and I found myself learning so many things I’d never known before, some of which were really momentous but were omitted from our social studies and history classes. The Hotel workshops started out intimidating but turned out to be incredibly amazing. By the end, I remember thinking how much I was going to miss the cast, because we had worked so closely, creating relationships and stories together every day.
By contrast, Public Enemy is scripted, so it’s actually less overwhelming – at least for now; we’ve only been rehearsing for a few days!
You grew up watching a lot of the actors in Public Enemy and Hotel, onstage and on TV. What’s it like working with them now?
It started when I worked with actors like Huzir Sulaiman, Tan Kheng Hua and Neo Swee Lin in readings – I discovered that these veteran actors are human too. In fact, they keep reminding me that, no matter how much experience someone has had or how old they are, everybody has their insecurities and everyone gets scared. They’re very down-to-earth and grounded.
Ivan has been very nurturing with me, and Kay Siu is just super-warm and sweet and gentle. I feel really safe working with them. Glen and Thuan Chye make me cut slices of cake for them during rehearsal breaks because I am the youngest… but sometimes I make Brendon Fernandez do it because I am a bully and he is a gentleman. So, yes, it is pretty awesome working with this bunch!
