Citizen Pig: Singaporeans or not, we were victims of rental scams

The Finger Players' latest production Citizen Pig looked at how locals and foreigners fell prey to unscrupulous landlords in the rental market.  Based on real life experiences of co-directors and playwrights Oliver Chong and Liu Xiaoyi, the play re-examined the effectiveness of our rental laws and the helplessness of ordinary people.

The script by Oliver Chong and Liuyi were tight and funny at times. However, it did not rise above the narration of the incidents faced by them.  In the story, both Singaporeans and foreigners were being exploited, but could it be due to naivety on their part?



Both actors did well on the small stage of the Drama Centre Blackbox, which was filled with chairs. They took turns portraying various characters, including the landlords, the housing agents, the estate management people, police to mostly comic effects.

Overall, this is an enjoyable performance from the two of them.  Compared to Roots (see review), which was staged by the same company about a year ago, Citizen Pig lacked a universal theme or the space for the audience to ponder over the issues.  Nonetheless, this was a good effort by the company and by the 2 artist.