Pangdemonium returns to theatres with acclaimed one-woman show Girls & Boys

SINGAPORE - Actress Nikki Muller says her first reaction on reading the script for Dennis Kelly's Girls & Boys: "There are so many words!"

She then asked director Tracie Pang: "Should we take on this crazy kamikaze mission?"

The play, directed by Pang, is on at the Drama Centre Theatre from Feb 25 to March 14. A woman narrates, for 1½ hours, the story of her perfect life - meeting the man of her dreams, marrying and having children - and how it unravels in a shocking twist.

This is Pangdemonium's first show since the theatre company had to postpone two planned productions last year due to the pandemic. The compactness of a solo show seems tailor-made for this year, with venues still facing limited seating capacities and companies reeling from the financial impact of a year of no box office.

But Pang, 53, says she had scheduled Girls & Boys in 2019 for the 2021 season. She says: "How lucky and fortuitous is it that we had a one-woman show in this slot?"

She and husband Adrian Pang were in New York in 2018 and they had tickets to the play. Unfortunately, "Carey Mulligan broke her toe, so all the shows were cancelled".

She read the script instead and was wowed by the story. "It took a journey that I did not expect. And I love that about theatre, when the story takes you to new and unexpected places."

Muller says the script convinced her to take on her first theatre gig in a while. "This will be the biggest creative challenge I would have ever undertaken, and I'm ready for it. Or at least I thought I was."

A week into rehearsals and she is finding it physically taxing, she admits.

The actress is known as the host of The Food Detectives (2013 to 2016) and had a small role in HBO's hit Westworld last year.

Pang, a directing veteran, says she has been very conscious of the pressure cooker of a solo show where everything rests on the shoulders of one actor. "It can get a bit overwhelming. So it's knowing when to put the brakes on and go, 'Okay, let's stop there.'"

The rehearsal process has not been just stress and strain however. Muller, 35, says delightedly: "Tracie plays a really good little girl."

The director laughs: "We've been kind of improvising the other characters in the space. That's been fun. For me, it has initiated a revisiting of certain periods in my life when my boys were that small."

She has two sons, aged 19 and 20, with Adrian Pang.

The all-female crew, she adds, has given the production a different vibe. But the show is not just about one woman. Without giving away the plot, Pang says: "What we're really discovering with this play is the whole male-female dynamics that Dennis Kelly is trying to uncover. It's not just about the story of her life."

Muller has become a big fan of the character she plays. "When you are allowed to invite eight people to your house, whom would you invite? I'd invite her."

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Book It

What: Girls & Boys

Where: Drama Centre Theatre, Feb 25 to March 14

Admission: $30 to $75 from Sistic

Info: Pangdemonium website