The Odd Couple: A well-attended play with well-dressed people.

I have not attended a "straight" play for ages. By that i meant people acting as distinct characters, realistic sets, real time, yada, yada, yada... In other words, nothing that was quite so "Cheem" that require you to think about the methaphorical properties of a particular lampshade. After having overworked my brain on looking at the subtext of plays like Sand and a Distant Star, and the likes, I am a little confounded on the onset of The Odd Couple and more than once, had to readjust my brain to stop trying to think too deeply into the unsaid or unseen or symbolism and just concentrate on the wit and humor and the acting. After i changed my "mode" around, things gotten pretty much more enjoyable by the second act. I realized that watching a performance requires more that what is going on on stage as the audience is an integral part of the process in the enjoyment of the show. My cousin recited a fact about her boss who absolutely have no interest in anything related to the arts after declaring "I am not the arty-farty sort" and felt that such performances, regardless of its merits, are hardly enjoyable (perhaps even torturous). That in itself is quite ironical since he is in charge of the allocating of sponsorships to such artistic groups or productions, rightly by order of merits.

Well, back to the play. It is enjoyable and witty and funny but i have never been particularly fond or otherwise of such a genre. For some reasons, i prefer things to be less "accessible" unless if it was brilliantly witty. For example, I enjoyed ART! tremendously for its dead pan british humor and clever take on the topic of art. But I wouldn't say that The Odd Couple was quite like that though i can see its attraction for most audience and to be fair, the actors acted remarkably well (its the Adrian Pang as Felix version) despite some minor hiccups on the lines here and there. I guess i am just spolit by years of foreign art films and avant-garde theatre performances. Ah, but as i said, all i needed to do is just change my "mode" of perception a little and everything made sense again.