Stella Kon’s monodrama, Emily of Emerald Hill, which chronicles the life and tribulations of a Singaporean Peranakan matriarch, is a landmark play in the dramatic literature of the nation.
It was performed for the first time in Singapore by Margaret Chan at the Singapore Drama Festival in 1985. The production represented the nation at the Commonwealth Arts Festival in Edinburgh in 1986, and then made Singapore English language theatre history when it became the first Singapore show to be invited to the world-famous Edinburgh Festival Fringe that same year. In Edinburgh, Emily performed at the top theatre venues of the city — the Assembly Rooms and the Traverse Theatre. Emily continues to be performed regularly in Singapore, Malaysia and internationally. The play is a Ministry of Education approved literature text for secondary schools.
Margaret returns as Emily in the Singapore Arts Festival 2010 at the Victoria Theatre. Her reprisal of this iconic performance that had her voted by the Straits Times as ‘Singapore’s Newsmaker of 1985' is viewed as a comment on the vigour of Singapore theatre.
The 2010 production helmed by producer-director Jeremiah Choy and co-directed by Margaret will stage Margaret's Emily against the backdrop of this watershed era in Singapore history. The sense of that moment in time as the wane of the British Empire gave over to the birth of a new nation will be created with the help of a multi-media presentation by designer-director Casey Lim. At the close of the play, Emily fades away, but her grandson emerges strong and resolute, and appreciative of the old woman's role in the bringing up of the family.
Director: Jeremiah Choy, Margaret Chan
Multimedia Design: Casey Lim
Cast: Margaret Chan
(Source: National Arts Council Programme)