Spending a Friday night out with two\nunmarried, middle-aged Englishmen who still live with their mothers is not my idea\nof a fun date, but apparently personal ads can be deceiving, especially in the\ncase of Graham Whittaker and Gus Gascoigne, at the Actors Studio Greenhall,\nPenang. Still, you would have to play second fiddle to their objects of\naffection — trains and Graham’s mother — and not expect them to lavish you\nwith sweet words, flowers, and certainly no snogging (even without DBKL\naround).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, unmarried, middle-aged\ntrainspotters (literally, people who spot trains) seem to find snogging\nrepulsive. That breed of men cannot tell the difference between a train’s\nrumble and the moan of a female in heat, as Gus Gascoigne, played by the\nheavily made-up Alan Smith, reveals in Anorak\nof Fire<\/em>, his one-man “Trainspotting For Dummies”. It forms the\nfirst half of a Double Bill presented by the Penang Players and directed by\nDavid Broadhurst (Thu 4 – Sat 6 May 2005) …<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alan’s expressions and gestures\nsuited his character incredibly well: the fidgety twitching, fiddling of\nthumbs, and the apprehension, as Gus speaks of his domineering mother (who\nkeeps his salary and gives him a monthly allowance), taking a girl out,\nstudying for his GCSEs and working in I.T. instead of pursuing his dream of\ndriving a locomotive. The moment he starts gushing over his trains, however,\nall that insecurity disappears and is replaced by gusts of confidence, and his\nstories (mostly gossip about other spotters) rush out full steam (electricity?)\nahead. Listening to Gus go on and on about trains, I couldn\u2019t help but wonder\nif I had the same effect on my school friends when I get carried away with my\nTaekwondo stories. But Gus has been so long deprived of an appreciative\naudience that he just couldn’t help squeezing as much as he could out from\nGreenhall’s audience, who were surprisingly very appreciative, chuckling and\nguffawing along. Me? Despite Gus’ efforts, I still think trainspotting is a\ncriminal waste of time and would much rather do my mathematics than spot trains\n(maybe it is because there are no trains to spot on this island).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe it was the accent, maybe it\nwas the thick layers of eyeshadow, or maybe it was the unbelievable dynamics of\nGus’ psychotic mind, but I just could not connect to Anorak of Fire<\/em>. Low network signal, perhaps? My companion Adrian\nhad no problem whatsoever. In fact, of the two monologues performed, he\npreferred Anorak of Fire<\/em>. Maybe this\nobsession with big machines is a guy thing. Or maybe I ought to get my aerial\nchecked. Actually, Gus Gascoigne seems to me like the English version of\nForrest Gump — for his ability to reminisce non-stop about inane details while\nnot being aware of the big picture. Yeah, definitely a guy thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What about your pelvis?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Graham Whittaker, our second date for the day was quite the opposite. Played to perfection by John Cadman, this tea-sipping gentleman’s nice, quiet, comfortable life with his 72 year-old widow mother is turned upside down when Mum falls on a curb one day and runs her stockings (“Forget about the stockings! What about your pelvis?!” agonises Graham). Much to her son’s further chagrin, Mum’s old flame from her past, Frank Turnbull shows up, sweeps her off her feet, and before he knows it, his mother is as heavily made-up as Alan Smith and going off on dates while he sits at home and reads Men’s Health magazines (Graham\u2019s 6-packs having long been united into one).<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Chip in the Sugar<\/em> was considerably less outlandish than Anorak of Fire<\/em> and I could relate to it better. Mrs. Whittaker was\nmy maternal grandmother and her sister rolled into one, what with their weird\nstories and dementia. She certainly talks like my Ah Ma, distorted realities\nand all. When left home alone while his mother is cavorting away happily on\ndates, John Cadman’s portrayal of Graham’s loneliness and resignation reaches\nout to the audience, lending a bit of pathos in between the hilarity inspired\nby his disgust of Mr. Turnbull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Graham himself might have some\npsychological issues. For example, his paranoia as he waits for his mother to\ncome home — his fear that when the doorbell rings, he will open the door only\nto find no one there is a little creepy and disconcerting. His relief upon\nfinding someone<\/em> at the door towards\nthe end was a relief for the audience as well. The show left me with good memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you to the Penang Players for\nintroducing Malaysian audiences to the quirks and eccentricities of everyday\nEnglish life and insights to men who live with their mums. Because they are\ncocooned in their own world, these men seem to have a poor grasp of reality. It\nfeels sad to enter their world. Thankfully the guys I know in Penang just can’t\nwait to get out at the first opportunity, which is usually when they start\nuniversity. Speaking of which, it would have been nicer to see more locals\nwatching — but full houses are always nice and TAS Greenhall was packed to the\nbrim that night, even if it was with ang mohs. It is always reassuring to note\nhow people from the other side of the world lead lives so similar to ours,\nwhich is more than what I can say for Keris\nLaksamana Bentan<\/em>, supposedly about people much closer to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Talking to his keris<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Keris Laksamana Bentan<\/em>, presented by Persatuan Teater, Tari dan Muzik (Te.Ta.Mu.) Pulau Pinang\n(Sat 6 – Sun 7 May 2006, Auditorium P. Ramlee, Kompleks Warisan P. Ramlee), is\nthe first Malay language production I have ever watched. Having read Malay\nperiod dramas only in my Malay literature textbooks, I wondered what it might\nbe like to watch one onstage — they\u2019ve always been rather tough to comprehend,\nlet alone stage (the whole concept of “Melayu tidak boleh derhaka” or\nsomething like that mystifies me), and my Bahasa Malaysia teacher told me that\nunderstanding would be easier after watching them performed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the synopsis from\nKakiseni, this is “a retelling of the legend of Laksamana Megat Sri Rama,\na warrior who served under the reign of Sultan Mahmud II, the tenth Sultan of\nJohor (1685-1699).” Laksamana Bentan is away fighting a rebellion. In his\nabsence his pregnant wife has eaten the Sultan’s jackfruit and has been\nsentenced to death. The Laksamana plots his vengeance but is killed by the\nSultan in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Radzun Arshad’s performance as\nBendahara Abdul Jalil was quite strong in the beginning, especially when he was\nadvising Sultan Mahmud (Hamid Mukhtar) to spare the Laksamana’s wife, Wan Anum\n(played by Yuslina Yusof). However, as the story got more demanding — i.e. the\nscene where the Bendahara was torn between his loyalty to the Sultan and his\nown principles – Radzun’s portrayal faltered somewhat. His body language and\nhis strangely happy expressions did not bring out the inner conflict that\nplaywright Shararom Husain’s words would have had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Apart from Radzun (who made a\nfine-looking Bendahara, by the way) I couldn’t help wonder if most of the characters\nwere miscast. Shamsol Ariffin wasn’t what I would call heroic, especially for a\nLaksamana — maybe he is like those senior martial arts masters who, after\nworking hard for years to establish a strong reputation, take it easy and start\ndeveloping extra layers of lipids? [Are\nyou referring to your Taekwondo masters? – ed.<\/em>] Wan Anum could have been younger\nand prettier as well — hard to imagine why Seri Bija Wangsa found her so worthy\nof seduction… In fact, hard to understand what Seri Bija Wangsa and the whole\nhost of supporting characters were there for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The huge cast of unnecessary\ncharacters made the production seem like it was lengthened to fit in everyone —\none of the failings of overzealous school productions, but hardly what I\nexpected of an experienced theatre group. And the subplots did not help the\nstoryline move along. On the contrary, they seemed to obstruct the flow, most\nnoticeably in the last 30 minutes of the play — which was the most gripping\npart, if only the Laksamana would stop talking to his keris and get on with the\naction — where he kills the Sultan and everybody else dies too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sadly, Keris Laksamana Bentan<\/em> did not live up to its expectations and I am\njust as ignorant as ever on the subject of treason towards tyrannical Sultans.\nIt didn’t have much of a stand as to whether derhaka was justified. Usman\nAwang’s Matinya Seorang Pahlawan<\/em> made\nJebat complex, human and even righteous in his choices, but here I just\ncouldn’t sympathise with the laksamana — then again, this could be due to the\ngeneral poor acting. In the end, even though they attempted earlier to show how\nthe laksamana suffered the wrong, they ended the play with a message from the\nBendahara justifying the laksamana’s death. By then I didn’t just feel\nconfused, I didn’t feel anything at all. The play just didn’t commit to either\nview very convincingly — it just sat on the fence really. And unlike what my\nteacher promised, I remain as mystified as ever to why an injustice committed\nby a leader must be suffered gladly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Personally, I think the whole point of putting up a theatre production is to entertain AND pass on a message. Keris Laksamana Bentan<\/em> was rather lacking in both … I won’t get started on the historical inaccuracies, but for the record: Sultan Mahmud mangkat dijulang and not sitting on a throne surrounded by cronies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ~~~ <\/p>\n\n\n\n First Published: 07.05.2006 on Kakiseni <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Spending a Friday night out with two unmarried, middle-aged Englishmen who still live with their mothers is not my idea of a fun date, but apparently personal ads can be deceiving, especially in the case of Graham Whittaker and Gus Gascoigne, at the Actors Studio Greenhall, Penang. Still, you would have to play second fiddle […]<\/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":12,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7758,7774,7762],"tags":[4399,4401,4410,4402,4405,2165,4406,49,4409,4408,4404,3175,46,4407],"language":[7785],"writer":[7976],"class_list":["post-27919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artikel","category-ulasan","category-teater","tag-alan-smith","tag-david-broadhurst","tag-hamid-mukhtar","tag-john-cadman","tag-kompleks-warisan-p-ramlee","tag-penang-players","tag-radzun-arshad","tag-review","tag-shamsol-ariffin","tag-shararom-husain","tag-te-ta-mu","tag-the-actors-studio-greenhall","tag-theatre","tag-yuslina-yusof","language-inggeris","writer-jerome-kugan-ms"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27919","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=27919"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39046,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27919\/revisions\/39046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27919"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=27919"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writer?post=27919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}