{"id":27270,"date":"2006-09-27T11:11:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-27T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/?p=27270"},"modified":"2024-03-14T11:56:33","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T03:56:33","slug":"pillage-the-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/artikel\/2006\/09\/pillage-the-village\/","title":{"rendered":"Pillage the Village"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

The programme leaflet for Anak Bulan Di Kampong Wa’ Hassan<\/em>, staged recently at KLPac, has a\nsort of disclaimer. Roughly translated, it says: ‘Far from a romantic lament\nabout a nostalgic Malay kampung, the play is an exploration of the true value\nof a kampung filled with original characters; and the true loss in its\nextinction.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understandably, writer Alfian Sa’at and\ndirector-performer Gene Sha Rudyn, who collaborated on the play, might have\nwanted to distance it from the trap of predictable stereotypes. When dealing\nwith the issue of Malay lifestyle and traditions facing the onslaught of\nprogress, it is perhaps quite easy for a production to escalate, or degenerate,\ninto the equivalent of a middle-aged woman — in baju kurung, full make-up and\n10kg of costume jewellery — wailing on the ground crying: “Ooo my\nkampung, my kampung, uwaaa!’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anak Bulan<\/em> has no need for the disclaimer, really, and there are\nat least two good reasons why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, the play has more depth than to fall into excessive nostalgia. The story of Kampong Wa’ Hasssan — the last Malay kampung in Singapore to fall to modernisation — is told in quite a neutral voice. There are no overly romanticized speeches from old people, reminiscing about the good old days and preaching on why we should value our traditions. In fact, one old character in the play, Tok Tempang, thinks the story of his busted knee is more interesting than the whole history of Wa’ Hassan. Another character even comments, in passing, on the impact the loss of the kampung will cause: “Absolutely nothing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not one character is obviously sad about the slow\ndeath and disappearance of Kampung Wa’ Hassan. They are more preoccupied with\ntheir own lives: the small kid, Hassan, who may or may not have been the spirit\nof the village; a mother who has shaved her mentally disturbed daughter’s hair;\na masjid caretaker and a once-beautiful nenek; a drug dealer and addict. And,\nin some cases, are preoccupied with their deaths: at least three characters are\nghosts or spirits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The play simply showcases facets of these unique\ncharacters (all of whom live in the kampung — except one: a Malaysian\ncontractor whose job it is to demolish the houses) and allows them to tell\ntheir own stories. Their tales make up the kampung, and since none of the\ncharacters are written as good or evil, the audience is given the freedom of\ndeciding what to think of the kampung.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discovery\nChannel Art<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second reason why the programme’s disclaimer was unnecessary is that the play is<\/em> nostalgic and romanticized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter how hard you try to run away from it, the\nkampung is an object of nostalgia and reminiscence. It was — and still is —\nhome to a lot of people, but in this age ‘kampungs’, all over the world, are\ndying. We are living at a milestone in human history (well, according to a Discovery\nChannel promo, anyway) where, for the first time ever, more people are living\nin cities rather than rural areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thousands of years ago, when our cave-dwelling\nancestors began to move out of caves to establish larger settlements, some of\nthem might have, perhaps, lamented about the loss of their cave-dwelling\ntraditions. Of course, they did not have KLPac, Istana Budaya or the Esplanade\nto stage the art they made on this theme. Just cave drawings to fuel more\nDiscovery Channel hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, there is no escape from nostalgia about the past — Anak Bulan<\/em> realises this, and sometimes even uses it effectively: riding emotion to forward an idea. How else does one explain the surreal figure of the kampung’s last rooster singing Hari Raya songs — those very pieces of pop culture engineered to induce feelings of nostalgia and romance –\u00ad throughout the entire play?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the issue of demolition itself, there are very\nfew allusions to the political significance of Kampung Wa’ Hassan’s loss to\nrabid Singaporean development in Anak\nBulan<\/em>. However, a ‘riddle’ told by Tok Tempang to the young Hassan, in the\nform of a pantun, sums up one view of the whole issue nicely:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melayu Cina sama <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melayu tutup mata <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melayu Cina mana <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melayu\nputih mata<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sounds like Orwell’s ‘Every one is equal, but some are\nmore equal than others’, doesn’t it? Now have a Malaysian read it out loud, in\na Malaysian context. Or in any multicultural society, for that matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spreading\nTentacles<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gene Sha Rudyn, who performed all the characters\nsingle-handedly, was brilliant. He commanded KLPac’s Pentas 2 well, and managed\nto distinguish each character’s unique mannerisms and speech accents. Sometimes\nfluidly transitioning from an old lady to a mute ghost to a small child within\nthe minute, Gene is clearly an experienced performer, and well prepared for his\nrole(s).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were several times in the play when Gene would\nbreak from the story and play himself, to read out a fact concerning Kampong\nWa’ Hassan and the individuals Anak Bulan<\/em>‘s\ncharacters are based on. These were done in a declamatory Belia 4B manner,\nwhich was very different from Gene’s very emotional performance as any of the\ncharacters. He even broke out of the stage altogether: once, handing out a\nquestionnaire for audiences to fill up, reading the humorous gag questions\naloud; asking for certain lights to be turned up in-between characters, at\nother times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though a bit jarring at first, it soon became quite acceptable. Retrospectively, one realizes the entire play could be experienced as snippets, or parts of a jigsaw puzzle –\u00ad which the audience could later piece together at their own leisure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alfian Sa’at’s writing is tight and delicious. Nothing\nless is expected from a playwright who, amongst other things, wrote an\nevocative and moving story on that most well-endowed of our cultural legends,\nthe Hantu Tetek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alfian wrote Anak Bulan<\/em> in such delightfully chosen angles: slices of the ordinary lives –\u00ad and deaths — of believable people, living or dead. The loss of Kampong Wa’ Hassan means the loss of these characters whom the play causes us to care for: their lives would undoubtedly be changed forever<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though the story is clearly set in Singapore,\nalmost anyone who has seen progress march through their rural countryside could\neasily relate to it. Rural kampungs or reclaimed urban plots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scary thing is that one of these days, Malaysia\nwill have a Kampong Wa’ Hassan of our own: one last outpost of idyllic rural\nliving. Our cities grow as more and more people disappear into their swelling\nbellies, and they spread their tentacles, consuming farmland and numerous\nkampungs. The most affecting thing about the play is that it may be prophetic:\none day — maybe sooner than we think — the cities will rise and swallow\nMalaysia’s last kampung.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anak Bulan<\/em>‘s very last scene has Gene portraying a character in\na red and black outfit, in the play’s first costume change — perhaps depicting\na switch of characters, or a change of setting. He recites the azan. This\ncharacter, the drug addict, calls for prayers, struggling to have his voice\nheard as another Hari Raya song blasts over the speakers. The music rises to a\ncrescendo and almost drowns out his voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are, perhaps, few other scenes in theatre that so clearly illustrates the battle between the spiritual human voice and the increasingly dominant consumerism of our culture and traditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

~~~ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Published: 27.09.2006 on Kakiseni <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The programme leaflet for Anak Bulan Di Kampong Wa’ Hassan, staged recently at KLPac, has a sort of disclaimer. Roughly translated, it says: ‘Far from a romantic lament about a nostalgic Malay kampung, the play is an exploration of the true value of a kampung filled with original characters; and the true loss in its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"iawp_total_views":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7758,7774,7762],"tags":[242,3648,493,49,46],"language":[7785],"writer":[7816],"class_list":["post-27270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artikel","category-ulasan","category-teater","tag-alfian-saat","tag-gene-sha-rudyn","tag-klpac","tag-review","tag-theatre","language-inggeris","writer-amir-hafizi-ms"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27270"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38762,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27270\/revisions\/38762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27270"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=27270"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writer?post=27270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}