Who will listen?

The production from the Hwa Chong English Drama Club won Gold in SYF, and certainly deserves it. Titled “Checkmate”, the play was about a mayor and the last source of water in the world (the water station). To maintain the amounts of water left, the king executed devious plans and massacred the citizens. This secret was found out by the king’s son. Although he was constantly trying to persuade the mayor to change over, the mayor refused to change. Eventually the son leaked this secret out to the public, and participated in rebellions all around without the mayor’s knowledge. Only when the mayor captured his son did he know he was involved. However this was not enough to convince his father – he eventually drowned himself in the water station and contaminated all the water inside. Only then did the mayor realize his fatal mistakes, but it was too late.

This production was based on a simple theme: “Who will listen?” the play was actually an intense portrayal and an extreme example of the problems children face nowadays. I’m sure many of my friends face problems with their parents and even with their teachers. These problems arise when their parents always have an egocentric thinking, and teachers were always unreasonable. Some do not even have friends who were compassionate; neither do they have friends who even care about them. Then, who will listen?

Another play by the HCI English Drama Club was titled “Bang bang, it’s too late”, and was about a boy named Joshua unable to handle stress. In school, he was trying his best at studies, however his results were never good enough to please his Dad. Eventually he slipped into a complex situation where his friends laughed at him for slipping before even kicking an immobile ball; the counselor refused to help him; his teacher being unreasonable and pressurizing towards him. He had enough, and eventually he took a gun and shot everyone. Although it was also a rather extreme case, I have to say again it’s a perfect example of my friends and the problems they face: stress. In my opinion, to handle stress one needs to have friends, parents and even teachers who are willing to talk into their heart with them. When students are unable to handle their stress other challenges arise: Personalities change, hence behavior changes too. A chain reaction would lead to the same person losing friends and the trust of their teacher. Therefore, if we wish to help these people and solve the problems of stress, we need to be compassionate to other around us and always willing to talk with them.

The last play was from Clementi Town Secondary. Titled “Happiness.com”, it was about a boy who was also unable to handle stress and ostracism from his friends and had to resort to a pornographic website called “Happiness.com” to entertain himself. Eventually he reached a situation where he expended too much money from his mother’s credit card, and was too late to turn back. Yet another case of “Who will listen?”, the only difference was the outcome of inability to handle stress properly. To avoid all these, I reiterate that one needs to have friends who are willing to listen, and parents who will always be there for you when you need to pour your heart out to them. (: