GRINDER-MAN: MUSTANG SINGAPORE

Went for the first GRINDER-MAN workshop in late May. Tons of laughs and aching muscles, with a batch of people who all seem to have theatre experience ( I think). Met the new teacher of TSD too – Brian. He’s working with Jireh now. It’s so odd that she should be teaching. Didn’t seem too long ago when we were still crewing for her Emily of Emerald Hill monologue.

What made me raise an eyebrow was that the 2 GRINDER-MAN instructors, Hitoshi and Maki didn’t speak fluent English. They had to conduct the entire workshop through Pauline, an esplanade translator.

I know it’s probably a usual thing, but it just made me think how far globalization has reached.

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One of the exercises we did had the main aim of posessing the black head cube.

If you ever saw anyone chasing after another person to get the black cube on the latter person’s head , trust me, the first instinct is to giggle – whether it’s nervous laughter or amused one. However, according to Hitoshi (the troupe leader), it’s a serious, solemn affair for the performer doing it.

He never laughs, he never cries and he never gives up till he dies.

So while the back-and-forth competition is initially funny, it gets increasingly more serious and sinister, as the number of black head cubes dwindle and desperation to possess the cube (sort of symbolic of a life-force) gives rise to chaos.

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I’m not sure whether that’s going to be part of the performance because after the first one, I had to withdraw because I couldn’t commit to all the rehearsal dates. Did so reluctantly, but had to. Damn, because they look like they’re having a lot of fun if the pictures on the GRINDER-MAN blog is anything to go by. Ah well,  wish them all the luck! Going to watch the performance tomorrow.

If you’re curious about it, you can visit the official GRINDER-MAN website, but might not be much help since it’s all in Japanese, so take a look at the information on Facebook too.

Details of performace:

GRINDER-MAN
MUSTANG SINGAPORE
20 – 22 Jun (Fri – Sun)
esplanade waterfront
FREE

FRI
6.30 – 7pm
9.30pm – 10pm

SAT
6.30 – 7pm
9.15 – 9.45pm

SUN
6.30 – 7pm
8.15 – 8.45pm

image: flipside / esplanade