Strike While the Iron is Hot!

Put Chua Enlai in your show, and you pretty much have an iron-clad guarantee that he’ll have audiences rolling in the aisles. We chat with Enlai about the unique joys and challenges of playing the Dame in a W!LD RICE pantomime.

Tell us about your character.

I play Auntie Fanny, who is Ah Tang’s stepmum in real life. I also play Princess Iron Fan, who is the villainess in the fantasy world of Monkey Goes West. It’s fun to play the antagonist – because how do we know what’s good if there’s no evil? It’s yin and yang!

How do you go about preparing to play a flamboyant role like this one?

You gather it from the script, actually, and get a sense of how Alfian intended the character to be. There are character traits in Fanny and Princess Iron Fan, for instance, that mirror each other – that’s all in the script and the way they talk. You learn a lot from the text, and you try to be as faithful to it as possible. Then you test-drive it during rehearsals and try to find the right groove. There’s deciding how the character will walk too. Sometimes, a clue to that is in the lyrics. In one of my songs, I refer to ‘bound feet’. Now, I don’t have bound feet, but perhaps that suggests something – you know, the way she walks might be a bit more lady-like.

What do you like about playing the Dame in a panto?

I like that these characters, whether they’re good or evil, can play the humour for the adults and for the kids. It can be more slapstick for the kids, but there may also be more sexual connotations for the adults. You can be a bit more saucy, just by the nature of the role and the fact that it involves cross-dressing.

Also, it’s the ultimate facade. Most of the time, a guy plays a guy, a girl plays a girl. But this kind of role isn’t limited by any of that. It’s so out there, it’s so far away from reality. It’s so theatrical. That’s quite fun to play.

And there’ll be a lot of that in Monkey Goes West!

Absolutely. For me, as a guy playing Princess Iron Fan, I can play the duality in her role. Because there’s something almost violent and primal about what she can do: like create a tsunami with a flick of that fan of hers. There’s something manly about that power. You get that with Siti playing Sandy and Frances playing Pigsy as well. Pantos are always about both sides dragging, and this one’s very faithful to that. It’s not just the men dressing up women, there are also women dressing up as men!

Audience interaction is a highlight of every pantomime. What’s it like being on the receiving end of it?

It can be really quite scary! And it’s actually written in the script! There are many parts when we do ask the audience questions! It’s almost like saying, ‘Eh, you one whole row got machine guns, right? Come, let me stand in front of you!’. It’s like asking for it! I mean, if you’re the hero, that’s fine. But I’m not! So it’s worse! You’ll get kids who purposely don’t want to play with me, who’ll be difficult… [laughs] I’ve got my bullet-proof vest on.

Have you had any particularly memorable encounters with audience members during a panto?

There was a moment when I was playing the Prince in Cinderel-LAH! eleven years ago. It happened when I was looking for Cindy and I walked into the flat where her stepsisters were trying on the shoes. This kid, who turned out to one of Adrian Pang’s kids, shouted, “Uncle Enlai! She’s in the toilet!” Everyone onstage froze. Silence! Because I wasn’t supposed to find that out yet! We hadn’t even tried the shoes on and cut the heels or toes off yet! And it’s ‘Uncle Enlai’ some more, right? We were all shocked. And so, the kid got frustrated. Why was no one responding to him? You could feel his frustration. “UNCLE ENLAI! SHE’S IN THE TOILET!!!” I think it was Hossan who finally recovered and said, “Who’s Uncle Enlai? I don’t know who!” and then continued with the scene.

Monkey Goes West marks your sixth pantomime with W!LD RICE. That’s quite a milestone.

I’ve spent six birthdays with W!LD RICE! Because my birthday is a month before Christmas. And I’m always working on that day! I don’t know why it never falls on a Sunday or bump-in day. It’s either recording or rehearsal… for this one, the show would have started already. If you think about it, in the past ten years, I’ve spent more than half of my birthdays doing a panto! I think that’s very special.