Growing Up With Teochew Opera - 14

Return Of Heavenly King Tan Chor Hwee
1987年潮剧小生王陈楚蕙重临狮城夜夜爆满

Immediately after my last final year paper in 1987, I rushed to watch the Teochew opera performance by 陈楚蕙 at Kreta Ayer theatre. She made a return after she stopped performing in Singapore for many years. Normally, she would stage her performance in Thailand first as she had a lot of businesses and supporters in Thailand. In fact, five years ago, ie 1982, she staged a few months of performances in Thailand. Then, one of my sister’s friends managed to get a set of video tapes of 五 龙 会 or later known as 五子挂帅. We were excited to watch the video although the quality was not very good. We waited patiently for her arrival as the market in Singapore is not big compared to Thailand.

陈楚蕙 performed many popular shows in Thailand and they were available on video. Some of the shows were 红鬃烈马, 借剑, 碧海丹心, 孟丽君 and 红书宝剑. The following pages capture pictures of her performances in Thailand.

In 1987, I watched 薛丁山(Part 1 and 2), 红鬃烈马, 怒斩杨廷芳, etc. We loved 陈楚蕙 so much as her voice is unique. You cannot find this in any other artiste. She looks fantastic when dressed and dolled up. 陈楚蕙 is deeply loved by the audience not only because of her acting skills but also because she is humble and has excellent interpersonal skills.

The performance that year had been very successful. See a related Chinese article.
一九八七年，陈楚惠出人意外地亲率新天彩潮剧团，又一次来到新加坡。那时候，中国广东潮剧团已经前后来过三次，由中国输入本邦的录音、录相充斥市场，以香港潮剧团的水准，在本地还能卖座吗？谁都不敢有太大的信心，唯独可以略为壮胆的，只有"陈楚惠"三个字。出钱赞助主办的人，也都抱着亏本无所谓的心态，要给陈楚惠一个考验。为了减轻成本负担，部分乐员及配角都在新加坡临时聘用。陈楚惠在牛车水人民剧场演足了一个月，星期天还要加演日场，票房纪录却是有增无减。就在这个时候，由国这剧场主办的中国广东潮剧团第二团，也来到新加坡，由郑健英挂帅，在嘉龙剧场开锣上阵。好个陈楚惠，竟宣布展演十天，与广东潮剧团演对台戏，而在这最后十天中，仍然夜夜爆满。她在人民剧场院共四十天，演了四十四场戏，不论新剧目或旧剧目，戏迷都支持到底。陈楚惠有这样的号召力，实在是足以自豪的。