“This had to be one of the longest running plays for Southeast Asian literature,” Anne Louis from StageCraft Theatre Productions, who brought Emily of the Emerald Hill to Johor Bahru in 2024, said with Chin San Sooi directing.
And one just had to be part of the audience when Emily arrived in the city.
Stella Kon’s masterpiece of a Peranakan matriarch’s life sees the original actress of its first staging, Pearlly Chua, play Emily Gan, who manipulates and schemes her way to the top of the Nyonya hierarchy.
A second time to experience the one woman show with my friends, which was thirty years ago, while I finally got to sit in the audience for the first time, but one thing that we all shared was being immersed in the world of Emily, as it brought us into a roller coaster of emotions.
Society’s social butterfly Emily, is probably my favourite. I was in awe midway through watching the play, realising I was seeing a huge party in a massive mansion full of people in their trendy, 1920s clothes when it was only Pearlly on stage.
The antique props and the beautiful, iconic Peranakan outfit, plus the lighting, set the mood and move the location and time. It is been four decades since the story was staged, and the issues Emily faced are still relevant to a generation born long after it completed its world tour. I believe only decades of mastering a story could do this to the audience!
I was told, people might hate Emily, but by the end of the show, all I could feel for her was sympathy. Like the tagline that I’ve seen on the promotional banner at JOTIC’s entrance that reads, “All Emily wanted is to love her family the way she was never loved.”
If you come across “Emily of Emerald Hill” in your city, get a seat, and experience the witty, hard plot twists of Peranakan’s matriarch drama yourself that pushes issues like forced marriage and teen brides, status and appearances, misogyny, sexuality, and societal expectations.
Thank you to StageCraft Productions for inviting The Iskandarian.
The productions would be staging Othello in JOTIC next year, stay updated with more information at their social media pages.
