''Emily of Emerald Hill'' (''Emily'') is a play by Singaporean playwright

Stella Kon Stella Kon (''née'' Lim Sing Po, born 1944) is a Singaporean playwright. She is best known for her play, ''Emily of Emerald Hill'', which has been staged internationally. She is a recipient of the S.E.A. Write Award. Biography Kon was born i ...

. The play won the Singapore National Playwriting Competition in 1983.

Premise

In 1929, fourteen year old Emily arrives at Oberon Mansion, the Gan family home located in the Peranakan enclave of Emerald Hill in Singapore. She is to be married to her cousin. The play follows Emily in the bittersweet reflection of her life, through her roles as a conniving daughter-in-law, society hostess, meddling matriarch and finally a forlorn and lonely grandmother.

Cultural significance

The play has been credited for giving expression to a distinctly Singaporean identity through its portrayal of

Peranakan The Peranakans () are an ethnic group defined by their genealogical descent from the first waves of Southern Chinese settlers to maritime Southeast Asia, known as Nanyang (), namely the British Colonial ruled ports in the Malay Peninsula, ...

culture. In 2012, an exhibition titled ''Emily of Emerald Hill: Singaporean Identity on Stage'' ran at the Peranakan Museum.

Composition

''Emily of Emerald Hill'' was written over a period of three months in 1982, while Kon was living in Ipoh, Malaysia. It won the Ministry of Culture's Singapore National Playwriting Competition the following year. This was the third win for Stella Kon. Her previous two plays ''The Bridge'' and ''The Trial'' won in 1977 and 1982 respectively. A

monodrama A monodrama is a theatrical or operatic piece played by a single actor or singer, usually portraying one character. In opera In opera, a monodrama was originally a melodrama with one role such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau's ''Pygmalion'', which wa ...

, the play's popularity till today arguably stems in part from the inexpensiveness of its staging. Producers had regarded The Bridge and The Trial as unfeasible works due to their large casts (eighteen and twelve respectively).

Productions

Emily of Emerald Hill premiered in

Seremban Seremban (Negeri Sembilan Malay: ''Soghomban'', ''Somban''; Jawi: ) is a city in the Seremban District and the capital of the state of Negeri Sembilan in Peninsular Malaysia. The city's administration is run by the Seremban City Council. Sere ...

, Malaysia with Malaysian playwright Leow Puay Tin starring. The following year, the play was performed at the 1985 Drama Festival in Singapore with Max Le Bond directing and starring actress Margaret Chan. Other actors whom have played the titular Emily include Leow Puay Tin and

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. Notably, Singaporean theatre company

W!LD RICE W!LD RICE, founded in 2000 by Ivan Heng, is a professional theatre company in Singapore. In 2019, the company established a permanent performance venue at Funan Mall. History The first show by W!LD RICE was held at Jubilee Hall in Raffles Hotel ...

has staged Emily of Emerald Hill multiple times over the past two decades.

founder, Heng, stars as Emily, with

Glen Goei Glen Goei (; born 22 December 1962) is one of Singapore's leading film and theatre directors. His broad ranging body of work embraces the full gamut of the performing and visual arts and includes film, theatre, musicals, large scale shows, Wor ...

as director. The play has also been translated into various languages.{{Cite web , title=Emily of Emerald Hill: A Reaffirmation of Peranakan Culture , url=https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/emily-of-emerald-hill-a-reaffirmation-of-peranakan-culture/ , access-date=2022-12-27 , website=Association for Asian Studies , language=en-US

References

Singaporean plays 1982 plays