Moraliti Fantasia

By MR Al-Mustaqeem Bukan untuk siapa saja, rasa meluat dan menyampah tengok Akademi Fantasia. Banyak hal yang menjengkel dan meloyakan seperti adegan sedih dan “tarik beg” di akhir tiap konsert; laga-melaga atau ganding­ mengganding antara seorang peserta wanita dengan peserta lelaki yang lain; peserta tak berbakat dan pi’il mengada-ngada yang dapat dilihat dalam Diari AF; […]

Wanna Be An Actor?

By Ghafir Akbar Sometimes I feel that my life is a missing episode on Drama Minggu Ini. The episode where the son denies tradition, follows his heart and aspires to become… an entertainer! He wants to pursue his dream in the kota. But his father forbids him to leave the kampung. He runs away anyway […]

Theatre of Experimental Sermons

By Toni Kasim In case you were wondering … demi Zaitun… is neither about olives nor a woman called Zaitun. Written and directed by Sasterawan Negara Noordin Hassan, the play derives its title from a Qur’anic verse – incidentally named The Fig – which begins: “By the Fig and the Olive… “. The sermonic thrust […]

20 Years of Uncertainty

By Jerome Kugan Five Arts’ humble beginning in 1984 was a dismal time. According to co-founder and veteran theatre director Krishen Jit, there was no concerted effort to produce local work in English that speaks of contemporary concerns. “Even though there had been works staged by Syed Alwi, K Das, Edward Dorall and others before […]

Identity: A Cautionary Tale

By Zedeck Siew “Lorna Tee is handling my fee,” I told the good people at Silverfish Books. Lorna was one of the festival organisers, and knew two facts: I couldn’t afford the 300 ringgit on my own, and Kakiseni is paying a hundred ringgit less than that for this article. So I attended the Citigroup […]

Ubud – A Story

By Goenawan Mohamad “Upon the earth, beneath the sky, among mortals, before the divinities…” She tells herself she is in Ubud, crossing the Campuhan River, “my feet trying to clutch the dark pebbles under the endless flow of stream.” From a lonely spot on the rice fields, stretching over the fern-swamped banks of the river, […]

A Jakarta Romance

By Jerome Kugan It was meant to be a holiday. When local theatre/film producer Lorna Tee, Options journalist Danny Lim and I bought our plane tickets to Jakarta, we were only meant to hang out with our mutual friend, indie filmmaker Amir Muhammad. But as our moment of departure grew nearer, we discovered that our […]

Disco at the End of the World

By Pang Khee Teik Primal Jam Everybody was rushing to the Iban longhouse. It’s not the real thing, but a mock-up version here at the Sarawak Cultural Village. The audience who were already seated for the previous session, led by the Doghouse Skiffle group, remained fixed to the bamboo floor. Fanning ourselves in vain attempts […]

Fear Factor

By Sonia Randhawa Fed up with pesky reviewers? Think critics have just too much power? For that shiny positive feel after every movie, follow the lead of an irritated actress from a recent local horror flick. A freelance critic found himself suspended for a month by a local English-language daily simply because the actress called […]

Penyair Perang Balkan

By Amirul Fakir Ketika dihubungi oleh Eddin Khoo, seorang penulis dan pengkaji budaya, tentang hasratnya untuk melakukan ziarah seni ke Yayasan Kesenian Perak (YKP) bersama-sama dengan penyair tersohor dari Amerika baru-baru ini, kurator YKP Nur Hanim agak kaget dan berdebar-debar. lni bukanlah kerana YKP tidak pernah menerima tetamu dari luar negara tetapi tarikh kunjungan yang […]

Emotional Therapy Airwaves

By Chan Siew Lian If only for one night, life’s problems could disappear: creaky knees, credit card bills, demented, PMS-ing partners. If only for one moment, music could be the elixir for all the soul’s insatiable yearnings. For the lucky few who caught Double Take at Alexis Ampang recently, it seems the impossible wasn’t too […]
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