Cinematic Concerns

I've never reviewed plays before, heh.

I went to see this one with friends coz I thought the premise was daringly provocative for Malaysian society. The play deals with issues of sexuality and is originally from Britain – where to call it provocative would have you laughed off the stage – and as I understand was not amended much (if at all) in its translation to the Actors Studio production here by director David Lim, even leaving in references to pounds and the Tube. As for the actors, thankfully the choice was not made for them to fake some British accents – which, in my condescending view of Malaysian mentalities, I half-expected to see happen – but uses what we call "theatrical Malaysian English", which is of course appropriate, but which is often highly annoying when used in other contexts. (Like everyday conversation and the rare Malaysian English-language film or TV show.)

What's the play about? Well, the following trailer should give you an idea.



The play is as simple as that, without any subplots and subthemes, most likely to its advantage. The dialogue is foul-mouthed and moderately witty (well, it got the audience consistently guffawing every few minutes).

The acting, as my friends agree, is good. One thing that I appreciated was that the gay characters weren't overplayed – flappy hand gestures, for sure, but it seemed embodied and rather natural, as opposed to "flap-my-hands-see-nah-how-gay-I-am!".

My favourite performance is that of Hana Mazlan, who plays the 'other woman' with a consistent smile throughout the play that makes you point out, instead, that twinkle in her eye. She made her character both cute and deliciously manipulative, and I was rooting for her to emerge victorious in this so-called ultimate bitchfight.

Jon Chew and Iedil Putra were both convincing enough playing their gay characters (I am assuming, by default, that the actors are in fact straight ... doesn't matter either way), and, again in Malaysian society, daring in their willingness to go all touchy-feely, though the playscript doesn't make it necessary for them to go much further than that. It generated enough awkwardness among the audience to make them laugh, certainly. Jon, in particular, has some rather juicy lines – vitriolic verbal assaults and comebacks mostly at the expense of Iedil's character, which he pulls off nicely by riding the cadence of the dialogue lines. Iedil Putra, on the other hand, given long strings of sentences at many points of the script, unfortunately squanders them by spitting them out ultra-fast without necessarily making each of them count, but at least the frustrating indecision of his character he got it down.

Thor Kah Hoong as the unexpected guest to the dinner party at the climax of the play is effective enough as the counterbalance to the "other woman".

One suggestion is that the actors should refrain from continuing with their lines while the audience are still laughing loudly; many a line were missed because of that. A couple of seconds of gap couldn't hurt, no one would accuse them of being too sitcom-like.

On the whole, an entertaining play on a Saturday afternoon, offering a breath of fresh air to the often uninteresting plays and musicals I see on offer in local theatre, with a fair calibre of performances that isn't trying too hard to impress. Who says that Malaysian theatre has to stick to just Malaysian-produced scripts? In fact, I'm now starting to think it might not be a bad thing for the majority of plays staged here to be from scripts written by Western playwrights for now, the better to challenge our thespians' skills. But perhaps I'm partial to Western plays. So there.

I'd say a solid 6.5/10.