I have never interested in watching plays. However, my friend forced me to join her to watch a play in Singapore. The play was on the short story “The Phantom of the Opera”. As it was during my semester break, I agreed to follow. The play was in Esplanade Theatre.
I was shocked to see there were so many of them came to watch the play. This increased my curiosity about the play. Even though, I sat only at the last row of the seats (that’s what we could afford for), I enjoyed the play to the fullest. I have read the story when I was in Form 2, so I manage to relate myself with the story sequence. The cast of actors were so good. In addition, the use of props to create the setting was really amazing. There were two scenes that I love the most just because of the way the stage manager brought up the setting. The first one is when the chandelier broke away from its ropes and crashed down. It looked so real. The other scene was when Eric, the protagonist, brings Carlotta to his secret house in the Opera House. The setting for this was exactly like what I read in the book, with all the ropes hanging around and Eric has to roar a boat across a lake to get to his house. The setting was better than what I imagined when I read the story. Till now the play is still fresh in my mind, and I am very grateful to my friend for forcing me to watch the play.
Moreover, as a future teacher, this gave me an idea that students will be able to understand a story or play better if they are asked to act it out. This is because they will be able to relate themselves with it. In my own experience, even though I have done a few literary texts during my school period, “The Phantom of the Opera” is the one still fresh in my mind. I am able to picture the play again in mind when I reread the story.
In future, I have planned to have some special savings just to use it to watch some good plays. ;-)
