Tao Of The World At The Stratford Festival
Playwright-director Jovanni Sy, whose magisterial Salesman in China (co-written with Leanna Brodie) was the smash hit of the Stratford Festival’s 2024 season, is back with an intermittently funny bit of cultural appropriation called The Tao of the World, set in the world of upper crust Singapore.
Let me begin by confessing that the combination of high-pitched Singaporean accents, local slang, and snatches of sung and spoken Mandarin proved a challenge for this ang moh, but eventually the hard-to-follow plot came into hazy focus.
The Tao of the World, is based loosely, very loosely if memory serves, on William Congreve’s 1700 Restoration comedy The Way of the World. Another inspiration, it seems fairly obvious, is the hit film Crazy Rich Asians, which is set in Singapore and was a big hit around the time Sy returned to university to seek an MFA in theatre. Sy himself was born in Manila and has no apparent link to Singapore.
In any event, the script for The Tao of the World became his MFA thesis.
The Tao of the World, has a lot of raunchy fun satirizing the uber-wealthy denizens of Singapore, most of whom seem to be dragged through life by their raging libidos.
Arabella Flynn (Agnes Tong), daughter of the fabulously wealthy and notoriously horny Lady Helena Yu (Manami Hara), acts as narrator to set the complex plot in motion.
Arabella is married to Trevor Flynn (Tim Campbell) a British business tycoon resident in Singapore who is carrying on an affair with Eleanor Marwood (Sara-Jeanne Hosie). Despite being married, Arabella has her heart set on marrying an old flame, Edward Lim (Angus Yam), a charismatic cricketer, turned fashion icon, turned action movie hero.
But Edward has his heart set on marrying Arabella’s cousin, Millicent Tan (Heidi Sy Damano), who it turns out is madly keen on losing her virginity to Edward. The only person in all this who is not incredibly horny is Edward, who cares not a whit for money and wants to marry for love.
Also central to the plot are Devan Pillay (Karthik Kadam), the very gay son of Lady Helena’s beloved Indian servant. Devan, confidant to Arabella, lives in sin with Jackson Lee (Derek Kwan), best friend to Edward. Thrown into the mix for good measure is Wilson Wong (Michael Man), a visiting Chinese-Canadian doctor who bursts out of the closet in rather spectacular fashion the moment he lays eyes on Devan. “He’s as gay as a Vatican conclave,” Devin observes presciently.
Sex in its many combinations seems to reign supreme among the upper crust, with the unfortunate caveat that gay sex is strictly verboten and subject to severe criminal penalties.
Sy has a great deal of fun maneuvering the principals through their plotting, romantic and otherwise. All the while, they are waited upon, manicured, pedicured, and generally pampered by a silent army of servants wearing Covid-era masks, all the better to turn a small number of supernumeraries into a multitude.
The comedy is broad, sometimes excessively so to my taste, but that’s the way Sy has chosen to direct The Tao of the World and his very able cast makes it work rather well.
Most amusing is a plot by Trevor and Eleanor to blackmail Lady Helena into relinquishing her vast business empire. Her Achilles heel is that she has kept a photographic record of her many sexual encounters, perfect revenge porn in the making.
The most notorious of her conquests was someone no playwright dare identify. In one of the cleverest bits in The Tao of the World, every time he is mentioned three loud bleeps obliterate his name. Could I be the only one in the crowd to think that the man in question was Lee Kuan Yew?
How the plotters get to that photographic treasure trove is one of the funniest things in the show and my lips are sealed.
The Tao of the World is a comedy above all, but that’s not to say that Sy doesn’t raise some serious issues. His skewering of the sexual mores of Singapore’s ultra-rich seems more genial than censorious, although some folks might find the cynicism shown by some otherwise sympathetic characters rather galling.
Sy’s exposure of Singapore’s anti-gay legislation is far more serious, but he reserves his most strenuous criticism for the ways Singapore’s underclass of servants is treated.
In a structurally awkward but heartfelt and highly effective sequence, Singapore’s silent servant army unmasks and breaks the fourth wall to lay bare their plight. It’s strong stuff.
I found the cast universally excellent. As the mismatched lovers, Damayo, Tong, and Yam, are pretty much ideal; super good looking and super talented. They are reminiscent of Hermia, Helena, Demetrius, and Lysander from Midsummer Night’s Dream, which unfolds on the same stage.
Of the many others, Hosie is an absolute hoot as Eleanor Marwood, the only character with a name lifted directly from Way of the World. The superbly talented Man makes the absolute most of the small role of Dr. Wong. Kadam, making his Stratford debut, is forceful as Pillay.
Nadine Villasin and Nestor Lozano Jr. excel as the voices of the voiceless servant class, Lozano especially so.
Sophie Tang’s lights and Lorenzo Savoini’s sets make the most of the Tom Patterson’s elongated three-quarters round configuration. Best of all are the costumes of Ming Wong, which complement Sy’s characterizations perfectly.
The music by Mishelle Cuttler and the choreography by Julio Fuentes add wonderfully to the sybaritic atmosphere. The dance at show’s end, which evokes the gavottes that Shakespeare’s company used and which evolved into the modern day curtain call, is a specially nice touch.
The Tao of the World, if somewhat ragged in its construction and dramaturgy, is great fun, with vivid characters and some genuinely funny lines. Of course, Salesman in China remains Sy’s true masterpiece.
The Tao Of The World continues at the Stratford Festival through September 26, 2026. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the Stratford Festival website.
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