Went to KL Performing Arts Centre yesterday by MMU bus, it was actually theater acting class trip, and we need to write review for a play from Singapore's The Necessary Stage
-Gemuk Girls.
Do they look fat?
Ermm, I'm not teasing anyone ok =D lolx, this is the title of the play. When this title first mentioned by lecturer, many of us thought that this play is about teasing fat people, actually it doesn't. Thought is a comedy as well and is kinda weird to have a play using FAT as the theme.
But after watching the play, Gemuk Girls is found to be a half comedy, half darkly intriguing play.
Short summary of the play:
The provocative new piece from the award-winning director-playwright pairing of Alvin Tan and Haresh Sharma follows the seemingly normal lives of a mother, Kartini, and her daughter Juliana who, together make a very unlikely mother-daughter pair – one loud and overbearing, the other straight-laced and on the threshold of entering politics. They are Gemuk Girls and proud of it. However, their whole world turns topsy-turvy after hearing shocking news about Kartini’s father.
One day, they receive shocking news about Kartini’s father who had been arrested and detained during the 1960s. Suddenly the floodgates of the family’s emotional past are thrown open. The play followed by creating more questions than answers, causing us to probe into our own lives and create a connection between ourselves and the characters.
Gemuk Girls is a bold and often darkly humorous look at family politics and the politics of the day. Gemuk Girls seeks to challenge audiences to re-examine the status quo and their preconceptions, and in doing so, presents possibilities for new interpretations and understanding.
Erm...for the thought of teasing fat people from the theme, well, it was later found out that the title is actually meant to give 'weight' to the show as the mother and daughter who really in BIG body size but with huge confidence, speak and face challenges with full of confidences. They are funny and humourous too in the I-don't-care-what-the-world-thinks kind of attitude.
The most important thing is the actor and actresses play their roles well, the switch of emotions in just few seconds, the crying scene, hmmm....acting is really not easy. And it is quite surprised to see that there is a good mixture of Malay, English and Mandarin conversations in between, but the actor and actresses are Malays actually.
To Siti who plays the daughter, I thought she is a Chinese at the beginning! fairest among them, but later found out she is not, she was the one who spoke lines in Mandarin at the middle of the play, and lastly found out more about her at the talk-back session that she surprisingly lost 15kg for the role! How she did that?!?!? Haha...and she said she still gemuk but is more gemuk previously..lolx
Apart from humour, there is actually a dark side, hidden main theme of the whole play, showing how the family cope with heavy past, how the outcomes can turn out to be, by choosing different paths they desire, so this makes this play rather interesting as we are quite certain to be in one of the path chosen.
In talk-back session, the audience is quite surprised that this play is not censored in rather controlled Singapore. In fact, Director Alvin Tan and Playwright Haresh Sharma are pleasantly surprised that there are no censors as well. For this theatre company used to be on the close watch list of the authorities which was fromed in the 1980s and now after more than 20 years, this company is having much more freedom and recognised by the Singapore's National Arts Council.
Photos of the day:
But after watching the play, Gemuk Girls is found to be a half comedy, half darkly intriguing play.
Short summary of the play:
The provocative new piece from the award-winning director-playwright pairing of Alvin Tan and Haresh Sharma follows the seemingly normal lives of a mother, Kartini, and her daughter Juliana who, together make a very unlikely mother-daughter pair – one loud and overbearing, the other straight-laced and on the threshold of entering politics. They are Gemuk Girls and proud of it. However, their whole world turns topsy-turvy after hearing shocking news about Kartini’s father.
One day, they receive shocking news about Kartini’s father who had been arrested and detained during the 1960s. Suddenly the floodgates of the family’s emotional past are thrown open. The play followed by creating more questions than answers, causing us to probe into our own lives and create a connection between ourselves and the characters.
Gemuk Girls is a bold and often darkly humorous look at family politics and the politics of the day. Gemuk Girls seeks to challenge audiences to re-examine the status quo and their preconceptions, and in doing so, presents possibilities for new interpretations and understanding.
Erm...for the thought of teasing fat people from the theme, well, it was later found out that the title is actually meant to give 'weight' to the show as the mother and daughter who really in BIG body size but with huge confidence, speak and face challenges with full of confidences. They are funny and humourous too in the I-don't-care-what-the-world-thinks kind of attitude.
The most important thing is the actor and actresses play their roles well, the switch of emotions in just few seconds, the crying scene, hmmm....acting is really not easy. And it is quite surprised to see that there is a good mixture of Malay, English and Mandarin conversations in between, but the actor and actresses are Malays actually.
To Siti who plays the daughter, I thought she is a Chinese at the beginning! fairest among them, but later found out she is not, she was the one who spoke lines in Mandarin at the middle of the play, and lastly found out more about her at the talk-back session that she surprisingly lost 15kg for the role! How she did that?!?!? Haha...and she said she still gemuk but is more gemuk previously..lolx
Apart from humour, there is actually a dark side, hidden main theme of the whole play, showing how the family cope with heavy past, how the outcomes can turn out to be, by choosing different paths they desire, so this makes this play rather interesting as we are quite certain to be in one of the path chosen.
In talk-back session, the audience is quite surprised that this play is not censored in rather controlled Singapore. In fact, Director Alvin Tan and Playwright Haresh Sharma are pleasantly surprised that there are no censors as well. For this theatre company used to be on the close watch list of the authorities which was fromed in the 1980s and now after more than 20 years, this company is having much more freedom and recognised by the Singapore's National Arts Council.
Photos of the day:
Piano recital at the end of december!!! O.O
Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol
*more photo to be uploaded soon =p
guess what time I reached my apartment yesterday?
2.50a.m. >.< ( after our "dinner" at kfc on the way back to Malacca lah...)
tomorrow...going KL again...ganbatte! >.<
1 comment:
OMG... 2.50am only reached apartment... siao... how your JLPT?
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