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Written by Tracy Wong
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NUS Eusoff Hall's dance production this year was intended in part, as an event commemorating the hall of residence's 50th year anniversary. The production, Love is in the Heir (how apt for Valentine's Day), showcased the dramatization of an assortment of emotions ranging from bittersweet love, melancholy to humour in a play that was narrated through music and dance.
HOOKED was suitably impressed by the calibre of the acting, singing and dancing skills of the talented Eusoffians.
The play began with a scene depicting a servant singing a sad tune while she carried a makeshift baby (it was actually a cloth) in her arms. The servant, Esmeralda, would eventually command a pivotal role in the play as the audience learns that she was previously offered to the evil wizard by her king, in a moment of vulnerability and helpless.
 The evil wizard made a pact with the king, that in exchange for peace in the kingdom, the king had to offer his three daughters to the wizard's three sons for marriage. Reluctantly, the king agreed.
The humour in the play was ringed in by the introduction of the three princesses that exaggerated their different personalities.
The oldest princess was a bespectacled lady whose tastes and preferences were academically inclined. Her favoured intellectual pursuits unsurprisingly included trips to the museum.
The second princess appeared to be the sole proprietor of the artistic trait in the family. Boasting the coveted lead role in the play, the king's middle child derived comfort and solace from her paintings.
The youngest princess was the attendant bimbo in the play. She projected all of the stereotypical bimbo-like tendencies, with her "natural" inclination for the colour pink, her incessant chattering on the subjects of shopping and in her case, cute knights in shining armours.
The king broke the news to the three princesses and unsurprisingly, only the youngest daughter explicated joy upon hearing the news.
Cue in for the next round of laughs as the three grooms-to-be were introduced. Instead of three macho men who radiated power and menace as one would reasonably expect of the sons of an evil wizard, the audience was greeted by an American rapper wannabe, a Singaporean Chinese boy who shunned personal hygiene through his refusal to shower and a girl cross-dressed as a guy.
The audience would soon learn that the grooms were in fact, not the wizard's sons, but, hired stooges from various countries. Nonetheless, the three "sons" attempted to woo the three princesses with efforts that provided great hilarity for the audience but left the princesses suitably unimpressed and adamant on their refusal of their respective marriage proposals.
By then, the king had died of poisoning, and the wizard had taken over his throne. The wizard was frustrated that his plans were not working. The princesses were begging to be freed.
In a fit of pique and as an abject denial to the threat that the uncooperative princesses were creating to his aim of enforcing his tyrannical rule over the kingdom, he made a vow that if his son were to overcome his (the son's) greatest fear; he would lose all his powers.
Of course, his self-motivation for making such a vow was his misconstrued belief that the vow would never be challenged because as far he was aware, he had thus far yet to sire a son. Little did he know that he actually had conceived an heir, when he violated Esmeralda.
The baby was a now a full-grown man, unaware of the identity of his birth father. He was working as a gardener in the palace and was deeply in love with the second princess.
The second princess who reciprocated the feelings of the wizard's son soon found out about the true nature of the relationship between the man she loved and the man she loathed. Not one prone to wasting time, she set out to help her lover in overcoming his greatest fear.
Unbeknownst to her, the irony of the circumstances dictated that for the wizard to lose all of his powers, his son had to overcome his innate fear of his own father, the wizard. The son plunged into self-doubt about his ability to do so and therefore, had to stand witness to his princess and her sisters being forced to partake in their wedding ceremonies.
Of course, all's well that ends well. The wizard's son confronted him in time to stop the wedding and bravely endured the torture curse that the enraged wizard casted on him. With that, he overcame his greatest fear of the wizard and not only survived, but put an end to the reign of the wizard.
 The play was capped with a comedic ending that the audience roared to approval to. The eldest princess travelled all over the world, picking up new languages. She eventually landed in Singapore with ignited a new-found interest in Singlish.
The wizard (with all his powers lost), the American Rapper and the Singaporean Chinese Boy became servants and they were relegated to wiping windows and mopping floors under the orders of head-servant, Cecilia.
The youngest princess became best friends ("I'm so glad we are BFFS!" they said) with the cross-dresser, and they spent a large portion of their time doing makeovers and ogling at guys in Cleo-petra Magazines.
And it true fairy tale fashion, the second princess and the gardener lived happily ever after, although Hooked is still unsure of whether they got married.
Perhaps the cohabiting lifestyle is in vogue in the magic world as well.
Kudos to the Eusoffians for producing a light-hearted and humorous play with splendid acting and excellent singing.
But one must not forget the array of dances that were put up. Some were slow dances filled with melancholy and sorrow. Some were fast and lively, like the jester dance that most people would probably remember. Some were tantalizing hot, while some were romantic.
There were many different genres of dances that night including ballet, contemporary dance, hip hop and ballroom dance. I could see the dancers enjoying themselves as they grooved to the beat of different music, engaging the audience, brightening up everyone's night with their cheerful exuberance.
Eusoff Hall has elevated the standard of hall productions that they themselves would have to surmount next year. HOOKED
Photos courtesy of EusoffWorks (Eusoff Hall Video and Photography Wing)
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