The one-woman play, written by Singaporean playwright Stella Kon, has over the years achieved cult status. Many performers have been sold-out affairs. Although set in Singapore, it has nonetheless been adopted as a Malaysian play par excellence.
First performed in Seremban in 1984, the play has been performed all over Malaysia, Singapore, and in various parts of the world, including Hawaii and Edinburgh. The play, set in the first half of the century, explores the same hopes, fears and aspirations harbored by women the world over in their roles as wives and mothers.
Emily is the matriarch of a wealthy Singaporean family, who runs her household’s physical and emotional life efficiently. She epitomizes everyone’s most manipulative and controlling relative. She is the wife who makes sure her husband has clean clothes, even when he’s living in his mistress’s house. She is the parent who craftily (though not subtly) engineers her son’s future. She is the sister locked in an ongoing contest of one-upmanship within the clan. And she is the mother who entices her daughter to postpone her impetuous marriage – “I’ll send you money, don’t worry.”
For the next hour and a half, we see Emily skillfully deal with weighty issues like wayward husbands, long-suffering children, and bullying by in-laws. Join the girl-child Emily as she articulates the horror of realizing that she is worthless simply because she is female. Watch as politically correct Emily pitches her tone about where the other person lies on the social scale, from “Oi Book! All the fish you sent me yesterday were rotten! I throw at your head!” (after all, what would any self-respecting Nyonya do without some shrieking and gesticulating in her life?) to the well-oiled, dulcet tones of “Oh Mr. Chan, how are you?”
Experience the subtle power struggle inherent in a traditional tea ceremony and the passing of a lifetime of garden parties and a squadron of servants.
These and many more treats await you as you accept the invitation to a soiree at Emerald Hill from none other than the one and only Nyonya Besar, Mrs. Emily Gan, herself.
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