Maturation and Political Upheaval in Lloyd Fernando's Scorpion Orchid and Robert Yeo's The Singapore Trilogy

Maturation and Political Upheaval in Lloyd Fernando's Scorpion Orchid and RobertYeo's The Singapore Trilogy CATHERINE DIAMOND Identification is compensatory to division. If men were not apart from one another, there would be no need for the rhetorician to proclaim their unity. —Kenneth Burke, A Rhetoric ofMotives, 1969 In Singapore, the portrayal of adolescent initiation and rebellion has been closely monitored in the theater, for, unlike the rather complacent and passive students ofthe presentwho have generally experienced peace and prosperity, student groups were politically strategic during the periods ofdecolonization, independence, and secession in the 1950s and 1960s. The representation ofyouth in Singaporean theater notes its own energy and ability to destabilize society. Remarking on the state's concern about this potential unruliness, John Clammer states, "Youth are liminal, even dangerous in Singapore (especially minority youth) and as such must be heavily socialized through an over-heavy educational curriculum that creates little time for playor relaxation, collective socialisation for [majority] males through military service, gender socialisation for girls through the spread of Confucian values, and the controlled encouragement ofpietistic and non-socially critical forms of religion which are thought to encourage'correct'values such as honesty, hard work and submission to the political authorities."1 Moreover, given its public nature, the theater itselfwas considered a potentiallydisruptive force that the government feels compelled to contain and manage by bringing it under a central cultural policy; "in the 1991 WhitePaperonSharedValues,itwas formallyco-opted asamedium for 125 126Comparative Drama the transmission ofcertain ideologicalvalues and as a tool for the empowerment ofpolitical leadership. This action led to two kinds of reactions fromplaywrights: one thatwas rather reactionary and the other thattried to formulate subtle alternative narratives thatwould change perceived notions ofthe status quo."2 Thus while in the twenty-first centurySingapore sets out to be a "Renaissance City," the cultural heart of Southeast Asia, representations ofstudents on the stage remain subject to careful scrutiny . Both Lloyd Fernando's play Scorpion Orchid (1994), based on his 1976 novel of the same name, and Robert Yeo's The Singapore Trilogy (2001) analyze and explore the unique relationship between the individual's maturation and the development ofthe state itself in the particular turmoil of an evolving Singaporean identity. These plays bear some relation to the traditional European Bildungsroman or initiation novel in which the maturation of a young person is chartedthrough the transition from the innocence ofchildhood to adulthood with its awareness ofone's sexualityand mortality.When an individual's political initiation coincides with a similar development occurring in the state itself, the guidelines for both individual and state are being established for the first time. The adolescent character is subjected to both internal and external uncertainty that challenges all previously held values, whether native or foreign, old or new. In this kind of situation, the trauma ofsocial chaos can cause intense emotional swings from idealism to suicidal cynicism. Personal passions and problems may be expressed in abstract terms involving wider issues offamilial and social injustice. Thus the personal and political are prone to being intertwined when the adolescent is entering a volatile social environment. In addition, postcolonial adolescents occupy a new role, not only as disillusioned rebels but also as embryonic citizens insisting on avoice and a presence in societies that traditionally acknowledged only the authority of the elders. Their pursuit of a new equality is complicated by the moral ambiguityresulting from the asyet undefinedboundaries ofa new community itself.This must take place in a state,"an artifact created over time byparticular interest groups andused strategicallyto make sense of the present"—that is also "an 'imagined community' in which there is a progressive integration ofthe population into a wider and finally totally embracing system and the idea ofloyalty to this abstract and far from obvious concept has to be inculcated."3 Catherine Diamond127 In the Singaporean situation which informs Scorpion Orchid and The Singapore Trilogy, this abstraction is extreme, for not only did the state have to construct itself from a colony artificially created from a flowofimmigrants instigated by the British, but also it had to loosen the ties ethnic groups maintained with their home countries to inspire a newpatriotism.And like a child that suddenly finds...