Gritty clash of classes

AT ONE point, the characters, unable to contain their rage, start to scream and tear at each other with stunning vehemence. It is a sight made all the more nerve-racking because the actors are just metres away from you. That they would lose their balance at any point and crash into you is a real - and thrilling - possibility.

The Necessary Stage's highly charged production of Poor Thing wants to present and dissect that not-so-rare creature called the Ugly Singaporean. The performance space has been reconfigured by set designer Vincent Lim, so that the action takes place right in the centre, with the audience seated or standing around it, as if they were witnessing a circus show or a burning building.

What they're witnessing, in fact, is a car accident. Two cars, a BMW and a Ford, are involved in a fender-bender. The BMW driver is a well-off Chinese man Jevon (played by Joshua Lim) driving home from a party with his drunk Eurasian wife Alisha (Sharda Harrison). The Ford is driven by a working-class Malay woman Sharifah (Siti Khalijah Zainal) who's taking her gay and unemployed Chindian friend Jerome (Dwayne Lau) to his army reservist training.