Comment on ‘I stumbled as I saw’ by Wong Soon Mun

The line ‘I stumbled as I saw’ is a very ironical phrase indeed. Gloucester only manages to ‘see’ the truth about his illegitimate son Edmund after he is blind. As I said earlier, the term sight and blindness is injected beautifully in this play.

Yes, I agree with Wong Soon Mun that his "disability to have insight" has led him to make terrible decision that has brought destructions into his own life. Gloucester is morally blind, and is unaware of what is actually happening around him. He is unable to see the reality. He is also ‘blinded’ by Edmund’s words, thus, trusting him in all the things that he said.

As what Wong Soon Mun said, this phrase should be a very good reminder for all of us because it depicts real life situation. We should not perceive anything only on its face value. We should be able to differentiate between the good and evil, and do not just use the eyes to see, we should also make use of our mind, heart, knowledge and experience in order to see…

Comment on Nordiyana’s- King Lear…

After reading Nordiyana’s blod on King Lear; ‘A Tragedy Of A Father And His Three Daughters’ that I remembered this play does reminds me of the story 3 Abdul by Tan Sri P’ Ramlee. The story is about three sons and a father. Two of the elder sons are greedy and their goals are only to get their father’s inheritance, while the third son plays the role of a good son which resembles Cordelia. He is being tricked by his brothers as he only gets an old house after the death of their father.

Two of the elder sons resemble Goneril and Regan. They wish for their fathers death. Their tragic flaw is the cause of their downfall at the end of the movie. They turn from majestic man to a servant. On the other hand, Goneril and Regan has their own version of downfall, their tragic flaw are the cause of their death.

Lastly, this movie has few similarities with King Lear and the characters in the movie do resemble Goneril, Regan and Cordelia.

Life is a fool player

I came across this line for the first time when I read the poem Life’s Brief Candle by William Shakespeare. “Life is a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more…” Later, I found out that this poem is actually a line in the famous play Macbeth. Then, once more, I am exposed to this statement in King Lear. In the play King Lear, Lear claims that “When we are born, we cry that we are come back to this great stage of fools…”

I have learned that William Shakespeare believes in the world as a stage and we, as the citizen are actually the stage player. We are not permanent on this ‘stage’. We act as the player on stage; we come and go.

The term ‘fool player’ is also constantly used in William Shakespeare’s play. Shakespeare suggests that we, as the citizen on the earth are a fool. We do things that are harmful to us and cause destruction on earth. We do not play the role of ‘stage player’ well, and therefore, we are a fool player.

I am on Shakespeare’s side in this idealism. I do think that people are doing harmful things on earth, either to themselves, or even worst to others. Thus, “life is fool player” is now among my favourite idealism.

Comment on ‘A Streetcar Named Desire is on the way!’ by Amelia

I thought that I was the only one, but to my surprise, Amelia has the same thinking as I do. My first opinion on the play, after reading the title of the text is that it has something to do with a car. It might be a very special car as it has its own name; Desire…Later I found out that it is about Blanche and how her decision has caused her life into disaster.

Comment on ‘Like A Moth To A Flame’ by Wong Soon Mun.

As what Wong Soon Mun said in her blog entitled ‘Like a Moth to a Flame’, there are many animal imagery in the text A Streetcar Named Desire. I do agree with her statement that it is perhaps because of human's behaviours sometimes do share some similar features like animals, thus many writers like to use animal imageries to portray certain behaviours of a characters.

One of the reasons that many animal imageries are used in plays is that because of it makes the story more interesting. It gets the audience to think of the similarities between the animal and the person that they are compared with.

KLPAC here I come..

16^th September was a memorable day for me as it was the day where I first entered theatre show. I was rather shocked to know that the ticket prize was RM20 because I expected it to be round RM10 (the same prize as a ticket in the cinema).

I learned lot of new experience on that day. As I entered the theatre room, I was surprised to see that the stage was in the centre of the room, and the audience seat round the stage. But I think that having the stage in the centre was not a bad idea at all as the audience have the opportunity to be close to the cast of the play, and therefore it has a positive impact to the audience as they feel close to the characters.

Overall, the play was hard to understand. It might be because of the story line which deals with the internal emotion and what is going on in the mind of the characters. The play has much soliloquy, and I am happy to be able to see that before me. This helps me to understand more what soliloquy really is.

Even though I do not fully comprehend the play, but I have gain lots of important experience and also enrich my knowledge in theatre.

Sight vs blindness

The term sight vs blindness has fully catches my interest since I was introduce to it in the beginning of this course in the play Antigone. To my surprise, this term is used repeatedly not only in Antigone but also in King Lear.

What interests me is the fact that the Greeks brilliantly adopting the true fact of people who are physically blind but are able to see the truth and differentiate between good and bad, as oppose to those who are able to see but they are morally blind in a play. Therefore, the play becomes ‘alive’ as it relates to our real life.

The term sight and blindness can be seen when Creon who has normal eyesight fails to see that his action will cause destruction towards himself while the blind boy who was guided by Tiresias is able to ‘observe’ what is happening, saying that Creon’s edict will bring suffering to the city and that Creon will receive ‘payment’ form God for his unwise action.

In the play King Lear, King Lear is unable to see that his two daughters are planning to destroy him, while his other daughter which is Cordelia who he has disclaim his paternal care is the decent daughter. On the other hand, Gloucester is able to see that Edmund has plotted against him, after he was blinded.

Here, the tern sight vs blindness is depicted beautifully in the play, making it more interesting and it reflects the real world.

Antigone vs Anike

Even though Anike is known as the Malaysian version of Antigone, it has its own speciality. Wong Pui Nam has brilliantly written Anike based on Malaysian’s history of Melaka Sultan’a Palace. I am pleased to know that Wong Pui Nam takes the sensitivity of Islmic into consideration, thus he changed the setting to the time before the arrival of Islam. This is to avoid sensitivity due to that Islam does not believe in attempting suicide.

The fact that the plot between these two plays is similar makes it easier for me to learn and understand Anike. But, personally, I prefer to Antigone as it is the original play. Somehow, reading Antigone has more impact on me than reading Anike. I am able to feel catharsis while reading Antigone as I feel closer to the character Antigone rather than Anike.

Shakespearewallah???

I do not fully understand the story line of Shakespearewallah. The storyline is very difficult to understand even though I have paid my fullest attention while watching the movie. The pronunciations of the actors are unclear and sometimes vague. To make the matter worst, the movie is in black and white which makes me less attracted to the movie.

Furthermore, I am unable to understand the connection between the title of the movie with the movie itself. The movie was not like what I expected. The only connection of the movie to Shakespeare that I manage to see is that they are actors who play the role of Shakespeare’s performer. They wear Shakespeare’s costume and perform Shakespeare’s play. I guess that is the only reason why it is given the title Shakespearewallah.

Overall, the movie fail to attract me and but I am really looking forward to watch the next movie which is Macbeth.

Comment on The play – Psychosis by Hui Ling

I do not think that Psychosis is a bad play like what Hui Ling suggested. Although I do not fully understand the message of the play, I do think it is still an interesting play due to other aspect such as the cast, the interesting stage which is not only a square stage’ it is all over the place. The actors have to run around the stage, sit next to the audience and even at one point, Susan Lancaster was pointing towards me as if she was talking to me. I really enjoyed that (being a star for a few seconds).

As for the lighting, I do think dark darkness is appropriate as the story line matches it. I do not think that very bright lighting will make the story much more interesting but it will spoil the mood that the director is trying to create, which is the pressure and pain of a person. Probably what Hui Ling can do is to watch a more direct and easier play to begin with before watching this play.

Pygmalion the movie.

The movie was very easy to understand as the lines used by the actors are from the original text. Therefore, I do not have to interpret the movie as some movies make changes to the text in order to make the story more interesting and also to attract audience. This movie is among the few movies that I have seen that stick to its original text.

The movie was interesting as it has been injected with humours. I like the scene where Eliza was dressed like a princess. Eliza’s slang was very interesting to hear although it is sometimes difficult to understand.

Overall, I did enjoy the movie and I am extremely pleased to watch the movie as it increases my understanding of the story. Other than that, it assists me in remembering the plot of the text.

Antigone

Antigone is an outstanding play written by Sophocles. Creon, which is the King of Thebes is my favourite character. He went through a very twisting journey in his life and it is very interesting to learn how he actually deals a certain situation. His arrogance and greed of power will pay him lives of his love ones.

This play has a very interesting moral value which is not to challenge God’s law. This moral value is very unique as modern theatre does not consist of this kind of moral value.

In my opinion, this play is not suitable to be used in secondary classroom as an introduction to learning theatre as it needs a deep understanding in another play written by Sophocles which is called’ King Oedipus’ in order to comprehend this play. Antigone is a play written after King Oedipus was introduced.

My personal opinion on the play is that I, as a girl understand Antigone’s internal conflict. I can actually endure her conflict in her life after the death of her two brothers. I will definitely do the same action as Antigone, which is to bury the body of my own brother even though it is against the rule to do so. Her strength teaches me how strong a lady should be in order to fight for the right.

The plot is being organized wisely and it is very easy to comprehend the play. I wish that I could watch this play live on stage later as it is a very appealing play. This is among one of the earliest play that I have ever read and wish to read more of Sophocles written work.

introduction to theatre

Greek Theatre increases my love towards learning theatre. In my opinion, Greek theatre has its own uniqueness and it very interesting to learn. The play ‘King Oedipus’ by Sophocles is a very catchy play as I like the way it is being plotted and the climax of the story has a very fascinating twist, instantly becoming the first play ever that finally gain my full attention during reading of the play. This play subsequently increases my understanding of the term ‘Oedipus Complex’, which means; the conflict in a male child who desires his mother and has a will to replace his father. The plot in the play ‘King Oedipus’ makes it easier for me to comprehend its actual situation.

During taking the course of ‘Teaching the Language of Drama’ in Universiti Putra Malaysia that I understand the values in a certain play. A good play will requires the audience to think and the characters plays with the audience’s emotion. A play such as ‘Antigone’ by Sophocles really touches me as its resolution is very tragic as a number of people died.

I have never watched a live stage theatre performance before and this course requires me to watch a theatre show. I am looking forward to it as my interest in theatre and also performing on stage increases deeply after attending this course.

zapin

Zapin has been an art that shines in Malaysia since it has been introduced in 14^th century. It is one of the traditional dances which are still seen being performed not only in the state of Johor but all around Malaysia. Zapin dance is usually performed in special events such as in wedding ceremony.

I started to get involved in dancing since I was seven but I was actively involved in Zapin dance when I was 20. Its typical soft lady-like Malaysian traditional dance moves instantly attracted me on my first view of the dance. It was not hard for me to get involved in Zapin as I have acknowledge dancing basics in another Malaysian traditional dance called Inang dance. The main differences between these two dances are that Zapin dance utilize a great amount of foot movements while Inang dance emphasis on the hand movements. Zapin dance is very unique as it requires a special music which consists of several ‘pantun’ and pauses accompanied by music instruments such as gambus, violin, according to light up the dance. Dancers will perform ‘kopak’ during these pauses. I faced some difficulties during my early stage of learning these ‘kopak’ movements as it consist of the whole body movement, going up and down in few seconds. Luckily I have mastered these ‘kopak’ movements now. The costumes wear by the dancers are baju kurung for the female and baju melayu for the male with a cloth around their waist called ‘kain dagang’. During the performance, the dancers are supposed to hold on to the ‘kain dagang’ with their left hand.

It is interesting to know that the uniqueness of zapin are definitely shown by the various types of Zapin dance such as Zapin Pulau, Zapin Tenglu, Zapin Lenga, Zapin Pekajang and Zapin Parit Mustar which are influenced by tradition and living norms according to different region in Johor. Zapin Pekajang has more forcible movement and it is more suitable to be performed by male dancers but today, female Zapin dancers are customary to be seen performing.

I hope that Zapin dance will not be neglected and will live on as one of Malaysian Traditional Dance forever…

Mak Yong

It is extremely sad to know that Mak Yong dance is hardly performed today. It was one of Malaysian’s dance-theatre arts but unfortunately, it is forbidden to perform Mak Yong today, especially in the state of Kelantan where it was originated because it is believed to be spreading negative values contrary to Islam. Mak Yong dance is much influenced by spirit to evoke the ‘semangat’ in order to ensure that the performance runs smoothly. This dance is also associated with rituals such as attempting to heal through songs and trance-dance which is contradicted to Islam’s believes and it has been a controversial dance during the PAS ruled Kelantan in the early 90s.

I feel sorry that Malaysia looses one of its art form. In my opinion, Mak Yong should not be automatically banned from being performed to prevent the vanishing of this unique art form. The government should omitted the values such as the use of ‘semangat’ and also other manner that are contrary in Islamic rules and replace it with substances that are tally in the Islamic context. It is crucial to bare in mind that the essence in Mak Yong should be sustained to preserve its uniqueness during excluding the negative values in Mak Yong. This is to treasure the important element in Mak Yong and for Mak Yong to still maintain its speciality.

Mak Yong delivers a source of entertainment during the old days and it is really a shame that Mak Yong is under going a steady decline. I hope the government will take an action soon to prevent the extinction of this tremendously extraordinary art as the number of Mak Yong performers is also slowly decreasing as it is now hardly performed.