‘Army Daze’ returns with a sequel 30 years later, in time for NS50 celebrations

“Army Daze 2”, the sequel to “Army Daze”, is finally here, 30 years after the original.

Written by Michael Chiang (who wrote the first “Army Daze”) and directed by Beatrice Chia-Richmond, the musical comedy sees the return of the original characters in “Army Daze”, as well as a crop of fresh faces for the new generation. It features Don Richmond as the composer and Annie Pek as the producer.

30 years in the making

The original idea was to restage “Army Daze” to commemorate its 30th anniversary, but the play had just seen two runs in 2012 and 2013 (for its 25th anniversary).

“What if instead of re-staging it, we did a sequel? So that’s kind of how it started, ” Chiang said. “So I spoke to Beatrice [Chia-Richmond], I said ‘should we?’ And she was ‘good idea, let’s do it’, and that how it led up to this.”

Fortuitously, it was also NS50.

“I think [MINDEF] were quite happy there was something like this, that celebrated NS (National Service), the friendships,” said Chiang, “so it’s part of the NS50 calendar.”

He had been approached to do a sequel to “Army Daze” multiple times in the past, but he was not keen on the idea then.

Different generations of soldiers

So what happened to the original characters in “Army Daze”?

“That was the fun part for me. I started creating little lives for them, so they have to be quite true to the characters that the audience remembers. What traits could I keep 10 years later?” shared Chiang.

As a result, Malcolm Png, the protagonist from “Army Daze”, is revealed to have been become an army colonel, despite being the mummy’s boy that no-one expected to have survived NS.

“Once that happened, it allowed everyone to react to him. The other plot device I did is that the five boys technically have never met since serving BMT, even though Singapore is so tiny,” said Chiang, “and they finally meet after 30 years, the same way the audience is being re-introduced to them.”

The playwright teased that “there’s something that happens which brings them all together.”

A star-studded cast

“Army Daze 2” features a large cast that includes Hossan Leong, Ebi Shankara, Joshua Lim, Shane Mardjuki, Chua Enlai, Audrey Luo, Jo Tan, Saiful Amri, Oon Shu An, Andre Chong ,Tahir Ansari, Irsyad Dawood, Tay Hwan Wa, and 16-year-old Natalie Ong, who has appeared on “X-Factor, Australia”.

“[Natalie Ong] plays the girl that all the four boys are hoping to be with,” said Chiang, referring to the new generation of NS recruits and their love interest, Renee.

Chua Enlai reprises his role as Corporal Ong from the 2012 and 2013 runs of “Army Daze”.

“I also play my mother,” said Chua, “so that they don’t have to find a woman who likes me right?”

He also had this to share about his character in the production.

“[Corporal Ong] is the one who spouts all these Hokkien phrases who make no sense,” shared Chua. “And I’m the most uncheenah of all the actors in the world, right? So I made some up along the way, because I couldn’t remember them in rehearsals.”

Comparison with “Ah Boys to Men”

So what does Chiang think of “Ah Boys to Men” films, the Jack Neo comedies about NS?

“Jack’s films were different because they targeted a lot more heartland audience, so there’s a lot more Mandarin and Hokkien,” said Chiang, “whereas mine was English theatre, so I couldn’t overdo [the non-English dialogue], even though at that point it was quite unusual to have someone speak Singlish and Hokkien on stage.”

“But the subject remains the same. Where it’s about BMT (Basic Military Training) and initiation to the army, those things are universal, any army anywhere in the world would have the same scenarios.”

“Army Daze 2” runs from 4 to 20 August at Drama Centre Theatre. Tickets are available for sale at all SISTIC outlets.

Marcus Goh is a Singapore television scriptwriter, having written for Police & Thief, Incredible Tales, Crimewatch, and Point of Entry. He’s also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. You can find him on social media as Optimarcus and on his site. The views expressed are his own.

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