Pangdemonium, one of the best theatre companies in Singapore, has picked Chinglish to be its last show of the year...Pangdemonium's cast is excellent, with Dan Jenkins giving a heartfelt lead performance; Oon Shu An sizzling as the sexy snake of a vice minister; Matt Grey impresses with his confident and unshowy performance and firm command of Mandarin; Adrian Pang and Audrey Luo, in multiple roles, lend strong comic support; TV host Gio Liang oozes charm in a cameo role...

Tracie Pang's direction is reliably solid, the parsing of linguistic structures and expressions gives Chinglish its best moments...scenes where Daniel and the vice minister take pains to communicate despite his zero knowledge of Mandarin and her broken English are perfectly rendered...Set designer Eucien Chia deserves mention for his revolving stage that whisks the audience from one location to another instantly.

A devilishly comedic Pangdemonium production fuelled by hilarious mistranslations, highly comical characters, and, more poignantly, cultural differences that subtly yet hysterically highlights the dichotomy between two powerhouses (China and America)...no easy feat to perfectly imitate all the nuances and subtleties of a foreign accent and also having toact well with it. It was thus a pleasant surprise when the main cast did exactly that, despite working with a language that most of them were not intimately familiar with...

At the climax, the crux of the issue was brought out very poignantly and beautifully. amidst all the hilarity, there is the real and prominent issue of the cultural differences between two vastly different countries. It also effectively erases, or at least, gives us a lot to ponder about with regard to the usual stereotypes that we attribute to the Mainland Chinese. In particular, in the Singaporean context, it certainly gives us food-for-thought, as this theme fits in nicely within our multi-racial and cultural society, reminding us that there is more than meets the eye behind the many stereotypes.

It is in the moments that Chinglish transcends the language barrier that we see the true heart of the story. Particularly arresting are the interactions between Daniel Jenkins’ Cavanaugh and the sleek, self-confident Vice-Minister Xi Yan, played beautifully by Oon Shu Ann. Their exchanges are more about each character: the haughty Xi Yan only expresses her true thoughts in the language she knows he cannot understand, while he speaks English to her with an earnestness that practically begs to be understood. Caught in the presence of foreign-ness, each finds a curious, limited freedom.

Watching Chinglish was an interesting experience as a Chinese Singaporean. Watching the back-and-forth of both hopelessly confused sides, I found myself straddling that divide; understanding both languages as well as appreciating where each culture is coming from. In Adrian Pang’s Minister Cai Guoliang I was surprised to find characteristics I recognise in my Chinese-born father – the affable bravado, the agreeableness (even when you know you can’t quite deliver) and, most amusingly, the way he answers calls. While neither a child of America nor of China, there were many moments within the play in which I felt able to relate to both.

And perhaps that comes from the core of the play: beneath all the language mix-ups and culture clashes lies a shared humanity of friendship, ambition, desire and even isolation and fear that we can all understand.

Pangdemonium's very competent production...all the sharp jokes are delivered with zing...with a basic knowledge of Mandarin, may of the play's subtler jokes and enjoyable wordplay come to light...buoyed by a solid cast who show great affection for their characters, Chinglish tries to move us from laughing at mistranslations to loving them, and we do...A delight!

Entertaining romp through the sometimes wild and zany world that is business in China...especially in a country like Singapore, where most people are fairly familiar with both English and Chinese, that this play works particularly well...

Pangdemonium has assembled yet another particularly stellar cast for this production, with Daniel Jenkins and Oon Shu An ably carrying the bulk of the load, while Matt Grey blows everyone’s socks off with the considerable fluency of his Mandarin; The set design by Eucien Chia – probably one of the more beautiful ones I’ve seen in awhile, of the many backdrops I’ve seen, this one is easily one of the most memorable.

The cast of Chinglish is a strong one...Audrey Luo stealing the show with her side-splitting impressions of three different translators...Matt Grey won over the crowd with his fluent Mandarin, specially learnt for the production. Daniel Jenkins further charmed the audience...

The play was well-served with a beautiful set and multimedia screens cleverly built in...tickets for the entire run have been sold out, and it is heartening to see Singapore's theatre scene blossoming in vibrancy.