KY review – Rojak! @ KLPAC

I wrote an entry on Rojak! the shorts and monologues last week, and went for the opening show last night. To sum it up, it was a very good show, and very well worth the entrance fee. If you have a chance, go catch it. It’ll be a good alternative to watching, say, Ice Age 2, which sucked.

This will be a little bit of review and criticism (hopefully constructive) on last night’s performance.

warning: Those who doesn’t want any potential spoilers, you can stop reading. This entry contains alot of pictures too.

Overview:
There are 5 shorts & monologues on each side of the 15 minute intermission. Altogether the play lasted about 2 hours and 30 minutes. Below are my comments on each performance, by sequence (I don’t remember the titles and don’t have a booklet with me)

A story about the brutality of sales girls. This play is funny, showing not only the hardcore tactics of each girl trying to get the customer by their product, but also the general brutality of female that you don’t want to mess with. The cast gave a pretty good performance, a good opening act.

Two friends spending some time at a mamak stall, talking about everything from current issues, politics, and personal relationship, a reflection of everyday life of a Malaysian. Some pretty daring display of “free speech” was involved, touching on some sensitive issues some of us might want to avoid being on record.

While pretty good in it’s own right, I feel that the ending was a little confusing. If it was meant to be a parody of an unfortunate event that happened at a mamak stall in PJ, I would think the victims and anyone who has anything to do with them will find this in poor taste.

A happy family, with everything perfect, everyone “chose to be happy”. This is a very comical act, with colorful language and a funny script. Great performance by the ‘son’.

However, the story ended rather abruptly, missing a great opportunity to give it a twist, perhaps revealing that everything of the family is superficial on the surface, while each of them holding multitute of lies and secrecy to support their cheerful display. Then again, it’ll be very long and can probably be a whole 1 hour show by itself.

A monologue, of a party with no guest turning up. A funny script and a pretty good performance by Emily. Very entertaining.

Frankly speaking, I don’t get this story. I don’t know what it is about, what are the screamings signify? What about the crazy mother? Who is the teacher, etc, etc. Altogether very confusing. Pretty much a theatrical experiment went wrong.

This story is slightly less confusing. I gather that it is trying to tell us to doubt the authority, to question the unquestionable, and to seek your own path and not merely following the status quo. Decent performance by the cast.

This is the monologue that has won the audience, and in my opinion, the best performance of the night. “Who wants to be a Malaysian” reminds me of the Daily Show by Jon Stewart, funny, and hits the various ugly spots that define us as a Malaysian on the dot. The actor gave a superb performance.

A story at a funeral, the gossips that went on, reflecting what must a mistress go through. A mixture of serious and funny display. The “Indian gossip lady” was pretty good.

The most serious of all the shorts. A showcase of the oppressed females. The contrast of one who accepts the reality and paint a make-believe picture to herself, and the other who vow to seek equality and stand up for herself. A very good story, and excellent performance by the casts, especially the silent E at the background.

This is a .. monologue by 7? I don’t know how you call this format. It was entertaining and delivered the anti-smoking message via reverse psychology. A good way to end the play, however, there was a guy smoking outside the building right after the play ended. Perhaps he didn’t get the message. hehe.

No conclusion here (I wrote it in the beginning,) go watch and have fun. By the way, their website – The Oral Stage