Seven Month Itch

I went to watch Seven Month Itch again today, but this time round, with Derrick. He's a straight. My ex's brother. He enjoyed it and me too. It was a little better this time round coz of the audience. When i watched it last Friday, it was just a few of us from Trevvy, AfA, HPB and Fridae.

I've to attend my first "trilogy" of weddings tomorrow, starting with my dad's friend's daughter. I don't even know my dad's friend. Please - call me and entertain me, or at least sms me from 7.30pm onwards to keep me occupied okie??? I would really really appreciate that.

And here's the article from Trevvy, written by my editor regarding the Seven Month Itch.

The awareness is there, but unsafe sex practices between MSM remain a concern. A new play by AfA and TNS attempts to address the issues, but Trevvy’s Kerbing Lee asks, “How?”

The Necessary Stage (TNS) has been commissioned by Action for Aids (AfA), the local AIDS prevention and awareness initiative, to create a play. The Seven-Month Itch is the product. The taglines?

“He has betrayed the trust of his partner. Worst of all, he may be infected”
“Will he be brave enough to take an HIV-test?”
“Will he confess his infidelity to his partner?”

Sounds like one should expect something of the melodrama typical of an after-school sex-ed special. But as even the playwright, Haresh Sharma of TNS, admits, there is a high penetration of awareness of safe sex practices with regards to MSM (men who have sex with men). However, when it comes to the actual practice of safe sex, the figures don’t lie. A whole lot of people just aren’t doing it. So, how does AfA expect to get the message across? Here’s a condom, wear it. Protect oneself. Protect one’s partner. We’ve heard it endlessly. Now what?

Sharma believes that there is some amount of complacency going on. In the incipient days of the AIDS epidemic, there was at least the fear that had people either abstaining from casual sex, or at least practicing safe sex. As advocates for those who had become infected and faced stigmatisation, there was the campaign to educate about transmission, and ways of living with the infection. Health initiatives made HIV less of a bogeyman, exposing how the virus worked and how it could be managed. One’s neighbour could be positive; a relative, likewise. One could be dating an infected individual. But don’t be afraid – no need to discriminate. The sharing of utensils, saliva, or air alone isn’t going to get one infected. Use a condom.

At the same time, get regular tests. If one does get infected, it’s better to find out as early as possible. Even if one is infected, no need to contemplate suicide. With counselling and treatment, one can almost surely resume one’s meaningful existence. Have a boyfriend, pop a few pills, and live out a fulfilling career. Or at least that’s what popular gay entertainment tells us.

So now, we no longer live with the fear. Then, how does one get people to listen? Individuals are weighing the prospect of living with a terminal condition and the inconvenience, and the decrease in pleasure, in the heat of the moment and deciding that the risk of infection is something they can live with. People are still getting infected left and right. It may not be HIV, but there are a slew of other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) to be had – syphilis, for one. “So what? That’s curable,” is what one might hear. Now, what is to be done?

It’s tricky to negotiate the landscape, what with the landmines. Yes, an infected individual isn’t someone to discriminate against. Yes, one can manage HIV infection to an extent. At the same time, one must be afraid enough to want to stay safe – whether or not in the interest of oneself, or of one’s partner.

So, if people have become complacent, and are tired of the messages, why come to this play? Sharma believes that people will come if only to enjoy a performance. It doesn’t hurt to feature two attractive actors – Timothy Nga and Danny Yeo – either. As Sharma puts it, MSM refers not just to gay men, “We’re talking about married men, gay men, foreign works.” But he believes that if one can reach at least one part of the equation, maybe next time, this person will think, “Hey, maybe I should do this instead.” From his experience with working on plays that drive social messages – he was previously commissioned by the Samaritans of Singapore (SOS) to write a play concerning suicide prevention – Sharma says that it’s important to target pockets of people at a time in outreach, and to promote discussion.

Sharma has created The Seven-Month Itch as an interactive piece. The audience, he says, will feel engaged and become invested in the discussion because they will be allowed to take on the role of the protagonist in various situations and to suggest how this character should act given his options. An audience participant might provide textbook answers, but the actors have been coached to throw in a few curve balls to make it as difficult as possible for them to take the responsible stance. This at least begins to re-create the likely factors that may impair an individual’s judgement when it comes to issues of safe sex and fidelity – alcohol, impetuosity, a gorgeous guy.

The Seven-Month Itch is an attempt by AfA to address some of the issues that can lead to the practice of unsafe sex and the possible transmission of HIV and other STIs in as innovative a way as possible. However, the concern still remains of how effective the execution is going to be. I asked Sharma for his thoughts on the matter. He said that this was his first time working with AfA for a play such as this.

Previously, he had worked with Paddy Chew, the first Singaporean to publicly announce that he was HIV positive. The play, Completely With/Out Character, a one-man show about Chew and performed by Chew in 1999 was Sharma’s first theatrical endeavour dealing with HIV and AIDS. Sharma said that with strain of the production, after every performance, Chew would collapse backstage. But he should show up again the next day without fail. Chew died shortly after the end of the run. Sharma admits that sometimes the situation with AIDS awareness and prevention – especially in Singapore – does get to him. But he feels compelled to do what he can when he thinks back to his work with Chew.

Organizations such as AfA can only do so much. They have clearly done excellent work in the areas of education and awareness. When it comes to the more recent issues with complacently and “condom fatigue”, as one member of the Health Promotion Board as put it, new strategies may be necessary to understand what people are thinking and feeling when they are aware of the risks involved, but persist with unsafe practices such as bare-backing (engaging in anal sex without the use of a condom). Or when people ask what the point of regular STI screenings is. Some feel that by the time they are infected, it is already too late and they wonder why they should bother to find out. Nevertheless, it is still important for organizations such as AfA to continue their work. One only hopes that they are able to evolve their structures and solutions in order to address the new situation before it becomes inevitable that a wave of fear concerning STIs is necessitated again.

Author's bio: Having worked previously as sub-editor (albeit, effectively editor) at a small and limited circulation publication, Kerbing Lee feels that it is time for him to propagate his wise and omniscient views on a larger stage. When not penning down his ever-incoherent thoughts, Lee can be found running like a big, sweaty ostrich around the vicinity of Holland Village, or capsizing kayaks along the far-from-crystal-clear waters of East Coast Park.

Get your tickets $23 now from Gatecrash or you may get it at the door as well. Concessions at $19.

Till then, Goodnite peeps!