Boring Concert

Off we went for Hooty’s school concert last week hoping for the same good dose of laughter that we got last year. Boy! Were we sooooo wrong.

The teacher’s had this ‘bright’ idea to do a drama this time around. A drama with two to five year olds??? I mean if it was in the lines of an animal story or something I’d understand, but guess what the story was—‘The story of Singapore’! Exiting isn’t it?

After the grand announcement of the title, curtain opens, and there goes a kid across the stage with the Singapore flag. Curtain closes. Curtain opens and walks in a kid who’s supposed to be the Malay prince who was supposed to have discovered Singapore. He apparently saw a lion and thus called this place ‘Singha pura’. So the kid points to the back of the stage and utters, “Ah! A lion!” (I would have been less irritated had they at least had a kid as THE lion.) Curtain closes. Curtain opens…walks in Sir Raffles and walks out Sir Raffles. Curtain closes. Curtain opens…in comes the ‘immigrants’ out goes the ‘immigrants’, curtain closes…you get my drift?

Then after a LOT of curtain openings and closings, in comes Hooty’s class to do a Malay dance wonderfully named ‘Kang Kung!’ How exiting is that? -- To watch a dance named after a mallung mitiyak! I nearly fell off my chair, ‘cause there was Hooty looking like a miniature version of my mom in law! Her hair was done exactly like her Aththama does her hair and she was wearing a long Malay dress that looks so much like the Kaftans my MIL wears.

Shouldn’t a children’s concert have little girls and boys just shaking their cute bums? (Don’t get me wrong here ;o)…I mean imagine how cute it would have been. It would have been great to see them doing their own thing while the music happily played on. That’s what would have made the kids seem like..well…kids instead of them walking so stiffly on stage.

What a disappointment. I wasn’t the only one feeling it. I could tell most of the parent’s were bored to tears. The mother next to me leaned over and whispered, ‘Isn’t so boring? I wonder when it will end.’

I hope next time around the teachers stick to good old singing and dancing.