From the moment you step into Theatro Technis‘s gate, it’s all decked out for the wedding of Susie & Craig, and it is The Night Before The Wedding Day.
The attention to detail (by scenographer Joey Haiting Zhou) is appealing: invitation, programme, corsage, flower, gift bag of sweets, cake. Garlands are everywhere and ushers welcome you.
Previously, we have all received an email from Susie’s friend Julie promising (milk) tea. So there’s a secret to spill, and it becomes clear very quickly that it’s Craig’s.
Susie tells us she moved with her family to London without knowing the language or the culture (beyond fish & chips).
Her fiancé, Craig, is white British. From what we see of him, he’s thoughtless and has little interest in her family’s customs. He’s always busy, perhaps too busy.
The Night Before The Wedding starts with the visit of Susie’s little brother Lynn to her house for the first time in two years. She hopes he’s found a girl to date.
The first half has a certain predictability and a bit too much ‘tell’ when it could ‘show’. There are attempts to break the fourth wall that could be further developed by assigning audience members a group ‘role’ like Craig’s friends, Susie’s friends etc.
Julie, the faithful friend who claims to know a lot about men, proves to be as naive as Susie, while Craig and Lynn navigate an awkward ‘new normal’. Company members occupy a couple of seats in the front rows to join in, scene shift, and call out.
There’s also a ‘bad Susie’, representing her ‘destructive’ side and emotions that are not acceptable for an East Asian girl whose role is to be silent, compliant, and submissive. There are also high expectations for boys from the same culture to be strong, successful and hyper-masculine.
Su Su writes and directs this play, revealing in his programme note the secret behind the wedding, and its inspiration in real stories. I liked the idea and the honesty that threads through it.
The play runs two hours including interval. Scene transitions are currently a little long at up to 20 seconds of quiet, dark stage and the play could have made better use of the space, perhaps cutting away from one scene and lighting another straightaway.
The first half is busy with activity, the second is quieter, more tense, contained. There’s not much set on stage other than an ever-present sofa and a dining table in act one.
Perhaps giving audience members confetti to throw, or having the actors briefly mingling pre-show would give more of a sense of an immersive experience. That said, I did enjoy watching the play unfold.
The cast of Marian Lee (Susie), Sonny Mihajlovic (Craig), Alun Qiu (Lynn), Georgia Louise Langley (Julie), and Yiqian Shan (Bad Susie), are efficient and committed, and Erin Gregory’s costumes are well-thought out.
Isaac Hutchinson and Mingyu Ding’s sound could stretch to utilising something to fill scene changes (even the chatter we heard pre-show). Keep us ‘in the moment’.
The big revenge plot? Muted. The promised tea? Lukewarm. But there’s loads of scope here to sharpen The Night Before The Wedding.
After this short run, the play will tour China in a Mandarin language version and a full East Asian cast. I hope we can welcome it back to the UK in the future.
I’m giving it 3 stars for the whole idea/experience.
The Night Before The Wedding finishes at Theatro Technis tonight and is sold out but you can follow the show’s Instagram account to keep up with news.
All photos by Louise Penn