WHEN IN CHINA: Kim Lan’s father (Alfred Lai) comes to a horrible realisation during Chuikhieh Sim’s (Noni Looi) visit, while Kim Lan (Selina Lim) and her little sister (Grace Ho) graze at dinner.
KUCHING: When JC Production brought John Michael Chin’s 51-year old novel ‘The Nyonya’ to the stage for a two-night show late last month, it was an unusual way to celebrate his 93rd birthday and a lifetime of work.
In the early 60s, Chin entered and won first prize in a statewide English novel competition organised by Borneo Literature Bureau.
The Nyonya was published in 1962, reprinted in 1968, and ran a third impression in 1976. It was reprinted this year in time for the show.
The story followed Kim Lan, a girl from China sold as a servant to a rich merchant family in Sarawak. Young Kim Lan (Selina Lim) was put in charge of the family’s son Syn Mong (Samuel Yong).
Growing up together, they were close. Some years later teenager Kim Lan (Susan Yoh) rushed to save Syn Mong (Parry Wee) from an amok’s parang.
But Kim Lan’s blossoming beauty did not escape the notice of Syn Mong’s father Towkay Lim (Buma George).
One Chinese New Year eve, after a funny monologue directed at a bottle of liquor, Towkay Lim dispensed with propriety and laid his hands on the servant girl.
Syn Mong found Kim Lan sobbing in her room later, and demanded to know what happened. The revelations did neither of them any good as Kim Lan could not face Towkay Lim again, and won’t let Syn Mong jeopardise his future by confronting his father.
She left to find peace in a convent, and a few years on, was employed at the home of the Buchmans. Kim Lan caught the eye of Mr Buchman’s guest William Richardson (Terry Neill) who proposed marriage.
She accepted and moved to Bau with her European husband. He called her Nona (Mini Ng) and they had a daughter. The much older William died while back in his home country but he didn’t leave her poor. Nona, as we must call her now, moved back to Kuching with her daughter.
Meanwhile Syn Mong (Albert Law) has wedded Geok Lian (Julia Goh) in an arranged marriage. Despite potential awkwardness, Geok Lian and Nona became great friends and ‘sisters’, especially after Nona nursed Geok Lian during a severe illness.
When Geok Lian thought she was going to die, she made Nona promise to marry Syn Mong and take care of him. It did not escaped her notice that Syn Mong had never stopped loving Nona.
Geok Lian eventually recovered but the deal was not completely off. She still wanted Nona to give Syn Mong a son.
Director John Chin told The Borneo Post in an earlier interview that there were deliberations over how to best portray a married man, a widow, and their long postponed passion for each other.
The production team came up with an artfully crafted short film, taking advantage of scene and weather changes that will be hard to bring into a building.
No words were spoken in the film, but there was little doubt what transpired. The outcome of that night was sitting in the middle of the stage, learning that his attentive and loving Auntie Nona was his mother.
This maiden production starred mainly amateurs with an interest in stage. One can be forgiven for mistaking them for a more experienced theatre group.
The icing on this cake was the execution. While it is impossible to follow the original material exactly, Chin’s son John, the director of The Nyonya, made it work on stage for a Kuching audience.
The stage was designed by Chin’s daughter Marian who created a still life portrait of the scene for the actors to walk into.
The scene changes and ran like clockwork. Every stagehand had a series of jobs, and nobody tripped over anyone. The music was performed live by a guitarist who also sang in certain scenes.
Like any stage productions, there is room for improvement. On the second night, Nona’s microphone periodically stopped working, a drawback as she narrated most of the scenes.
The scenes from Kim Lan’s early life in China and first meeting with Towkay Lim’s family were authentic.
However, it could have benefited from subtitles. There was a screen above the stage used during some scenes as not all in the audience understand Mandarin or Hokkien.
While the costumes are put aside and the memories immortalised on Facebook, JC Production can well call The Nyonya ‘a wrap’.
For theatre enthusiasts in Kuching, particularly those who attended the show, we can only hope that this is not the end, but a beginning.