Monday, October 31, 2005

The Julius Caesar Haircut Article

It was a Sunday too humid for comfort. The date was the 27th of November 2005. Our rehearsal had originally been scheduled to begin at 2pm, with the hope of maybe being let off for good behaviour around 6:30pm. However, late the night before, the cast of Julius Caesar received a mysterious sms, instructing us to arrive at rehearsal at 12:30pm instead. No reason given. An early start so we might be able to go home early? Possible.... but unlikely.

It was like a scene from a movie. All of the actors seemed to arrive at the same time. We got out of our cars and looked at each other in confusion....... why the early call? Who had made this heinous suggestion and how badly could he/she be beaten and still be able to perform come opening night? Somewhere..... somehow.... someone was going to get hurt. As we entered the rehearsal studio, a big, jovial-looking Indian man greeted us with a big smile. Next to him, was our director, Joe Hasham, with an even bigger smile. “Right!” Joe exclaimed “In the chair, one at a time!” The chair I thought...... what the hell for? Joe was only too happy to explain. “There were no sideburns in Ancient Rome! So you've all been called in early to have your hair chopped! Get in the chair! Now! Patrick, you first!”




Being the good sport that he is, Patrick naturally obliged. After all, it was free and Patrick has never been one to turn down anything free. But it was the more junior cast members that seemed particularly disturbed by this sudden requirement. But young Calvyn Wong declared “I'll do it! I'll suffer for my art... Joe, can we use gel in this production?” Colin Kirton and Amsalan Doraisingam decided to make fun of everyone, seeing as they're bald and have nothing left to chop. Ari Ratos, being the good natured all-round nice guy that he is, opted to remain silent..... although I did see him sticking pins into what looked like a voodoo doll of some sort during the smoke break. Michael Chen on the other hand, was quite ready to look on the positive side of things, saying that the shorter his hair was, the more rice his mother would gladly dish out at the dinner table. While Roshan Narayan and Pavanjeet Singh simply sat crying in a corner talking about how they longed for the days when 'Transformers' was still on the air.

As for me, I took it like a man..... and made an appointment with my stylist the very next day.

Written by Gavin Yap

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