KLPac , here I come! I came, I saw, I conquered!

28^th of August, 2007 was a memorable day for the three of us-Elizabeth, Soon Mun and I, as we got the chance to view the play, 4.48 Psychosis at KLPac along with another friend, Patrick, who had kindly drove us to the theater. A big thank you to Patrick as he drove us all the way to the theater without complaining and fortunately he had, too, enjoyed the play.

At around 7pm, we started our journey from Serdang to KLPac as we want to be early for the play as the play will begins at 8.30pm. All of us were very excited and anxious to watch the play. It will be our first play to watch as we have never view any play before this. The whole journey was not a bored one as we were chatting all the way to KLPac-about the play, the director and the actors of the play.

Very soon, we reach the KLPac! Hurray! We were so happy and glad that we had reached our destination. We were almost brought to tears as we had reached KLPac successfully without getting lost! Impressive! (For your information, we were unable to watch the theater on our first attempt to KLPac as we got lost on the way to KLPac and ending up missing the chance to watch the play “The System of Cikgu Tuko” two weeks ago and we had a One-Night KL Tour instead on that night.) Straight away we headed to the ticket selling counter to purchase our tickets for the play. We were so happy as there are still empty seats available for the play. What is more interesting was that we saw the director of the play, Mr Gavin Yap!!! We quickly approached him and politely asked him to have a photo shot with us and he is so friendly in accepting our request. We were so happy that we had the chance to have a picture with the director of the play.

The moment that we have waited for finally arrived. It’s 8.30pm and this is the moment that we are going to watch the theater. We entered the theater which was covered with black curtain. In the middle of the room is the performance stage for the actors to act. It is similar to the Greek theater, in fact, I think the director is trying to make the play in the style of the Greek theater. I saw an actress sitting at the middle of the play. Soon, all the lights in the room were turned and the play began. I was very impressed with the lightings and the voice projection in the play. Every word that they had uttered was very clear and the pronunciation was prefect. The lighting makes the play more interesting as it brings up the right atmosphere of the play to the audience. Catharsis is achieved in this play. I can feel what the character is feeling in the play.

Basically, 4.48 Psychosis is about voice inside a woman who is under depression. The acting of the actor and actresses were great as they can really portray the depression woman and brings up the character. A big applause to the three actors of the play-Susan Lankester, Samantha Shubert and Malik Taufiq for their great performance! The stage management is prefect too as the audience from all the different sides of the theater can watch the play clearly and feel the play.

It was really a great experience of watching the play! I enjoyed the play very much and so did my friends! We had a great night and we went home happily and cheerfully after the play. I am looking forward to watch more plays after this with my friends. Only then I realized that drama and play are not something boring but they are full of the element of arts, hard work and professionalism. I love theater. I love drama. I love plays. I just simply love everything about THEATER.

Comment on Diana Ann Xavier’s blog entitled “ANIKE & The experience of reading it.

Anike is a very nice play written by Wong Pui Nam. The play was actually adapted both from the Sophocles’s Antigone and from the Hikayat Melayu on Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat. I also find it enjoyable in reading this play as the writer puts a lot of the Malay terms into the play that makes me feel that the play is so close to the heart. It is really true that the writer has instilled our culture in this play by placing a lot of Malay culture and lifestyle in this book as what said by Diana.

Yes, it is much easier to read Anike as we have already read Antigone which has the same story line as Anike. Basically, we know what to expect next in the play. We know what will happen next. It is also easier to comprehend as the writer used simply words and phrases in this play. We could understand what the dialogues in the play and this lowers our anxiety and indirectly increases our interest in reading the play.

Anike did die in the end and that was really the sad part in the story and this got to show us that Anike did not die in shame as she did no fault but the one who did not suffered much more than Anike. Maniaka suffered a lot from losing his son and wife and wished that his life could be taken away. It is not that easy. Those bad one will suffers a great more pain than to just die off easily. God is fair. You pay for what you did.

Comment on Elizabeth Anne Pereira’s blog entitled “Super Human Patience”.

I totally agree with what Elizabeth had written in her blog about the hardship and difficulties that Eliza had gone through in order to become a lady. To deal with Higgins was definitely not an easy task as Higgins is not as “gentle” as a gentleman. He always uses vulgar words when talking to Eliza and never treated her nice. He treated her as a flower with very little respect. Eliza is very patient and tolerable when she is dealing with Higgins. She bears with Higgins’s rudeness and harshness towards her. We can say that Eliza’s success in becoming a lady did not come easy. She has to go through a lot of hardship and sufferings in order to achieve what she has always wanted. Eliza is really a very determine and strong-willed girl as she did not give up half way in the process.

Frankly speaking, only Eliza can bear with all the sufferings that she had gone through. Like what Elizabeth had written, any girl for that matter that had been in Eliza’s shoes would had turn cuckoo long time ago. Eliza is really a strong girl. I admire her for her determination and patience.

Comment on Yogeswari’s blog entitled “Antigone”.

Yes, Antigone was the first play we read in this class and it left us with deep impression after we had finish reading this play. As it was the first play that we read in this class, most of us can remember the story very well as the lecturer had also stressed and emphasized to us the meaning and the literary elements in this play. Most of us can clearly remember that the theme of this play is about the god’s law and the human’s law. We had a lesson which the lecturer really focused on theme of this play and therefore, we can remember the theme of this play very well.

I agreed that most of us had the first impression that this class will be a boring class as this class will deals with many plays that the language is difficult to be understood but surprisingly, this class was very enjoyable and there is not one moment we feel tension for not comprehending the plays as Dr Edwin will go through with us all the plays that we are going to read. This helped us in gaining a better understanding in the plays that we have read.

Antigone is a play that tells the story of Antigone being sentenced to death for burying his brother which is forbidden by King Creon after he newly proclaimed the new edict. King Creon is going against the god’s law for proclaiming a new edict that forbids the people to bury the dead body of Antigone’s brother. Hence, Creon faces a tragic fall by losing his son and wife after Antigone died by the death sentence sentenced to her by Creon. This is the price Creon has to pay for going against the god’s law.

Comment on Diana Ann Xavier’s blog entitled “My experience in drama course”.

Actually, I do remember that some of my course mates got scolded by Dr Edwin for sitting behind the pillar but I just did not know that one of them is you, Diana! Anyway, we know that no one is going to sit behind the pillar anymore from that day onwards. Ya, most of us went to the class so early-as early as 30 minutes before the class started. Most of us were anxious and nervous as we did not what we will be learning in that class. All we know was that we are going to learn things about drama. It was really shocking to know that there are so many historical backgrounds to the origins of drama. But what was more shocking than that was that we have to memorize or study all the historical backgrounds in order to sit for our test 1. There were a lot to memorize if we were to memorize it but Dr Edwin indirectly had instill in our memory what he taught us in the classroom so it was not so hard anymore for us to study for test 1.

I was really glad that Dr Edwin went through with us the play Antigone and Pygmalion in the class as this makes me comprehend the plays better. I like reading Antigone as I find the language used in this play very interesting. Pygmalion was nice too but not because of the element of romance in this play but it is because I love the cute personality portrayed by the character, Eliza Doolittle. We really are having fun and enjoy attending this drama class.

Comment on Elizabeth Anne Pereira’s blog entitled “The Divine Law, Obey it or Pay a Heavy Price.

It really was not a good idea to challenge the god’s law as this will lands us to great misery and sufferings. God is the almighty and the creator to all the creations in the world. No one, no a single human being will be more superior than our god. In Antigone, we can see that Creon was challenging the god’s law by not giving burial to the death in his newly proclaimed edict. In order to make the public to obey his law, he proclaimed that anyone who goes against his law will be sentenced to death. Antigone broke the new edict and was sentenced to death by Creon by Antigone did not break the god’s law in burying her brother. She did the right thing, it is Creon who did the wrong this here. He broke the god’s law and sentenced Antigone to death. Therefore, Creon suffered great miseries for his actions. He did not listen to the seer and carry on his actions. Thus, he paid a high price for going against the god’s law. He lost his son and wife in the end. This is the consequences of not obeying the god’s law. He suffered a great and tragic fall from his actions. Hence, it greatly tells us that we must not go against the god’s law.

Text versus the movie...Oh, Pygmalion!

Right after our Test 1 on Friday, we rushed to the Bilik Tayangan to watch the much awaited movie, Pygmalion. We were excited at first as this was the first movie that we are going to watch for this course. As we had read the play “Pygmalion” with Dr Edwin in our class, we had already knew what the story is about and therefore, we get even more excited to watch it in the form of a movie. Pygmalion is a nice play and I like the character, Eliza, very much as she is funny, cute, humorous and innocent like a little girl.

To our disappointment, the movie did not turned up as interesting as the text itself. Although the movie used the verbatim dialogues from the text, the movie was a not as good as the text. It was interesting and fun when reading the text but the same experience did not appeal to the movie. The movie was boring and dull. The element of humor is not so humorous anymore when it is in the movie. I was not impressed with the acting neither. What makes it even duller was that the movie is in black and white. Most of us felt bored watching the movie and we were just waiting for the movie to end. Anyway, we watched the whole movie with full of attention although it was a bored one as we wanted to examine the play in the form of movie. It is surprising that the plot of the play did not change at all. Everything that was in the text was in the movie. The dialogues were all the same too. They did not miss even one single word. That was quite impressive as it was the first time I watch a movie which did not alter anything from the main story from the text. Usually, the director of the movie will adapt the story to make it different from the text but will keep the main idea of the whole story.

Although the movie did not turn up as well as to our expectation, it was still an educational experience as it helped us to understand the play “Pygmalion” better as we can store the play in the form of visual for the long term memory which will aids us in answering questions on Pygmalion in our final examination.