we went to a play by teater kami entitled 'Pulau Tekong: From Saladin to Ayer Samak'.

Its basically a play about the "supernatural" things tt our boys seem to come across during their time at tekong. the setting of the play is a topography.. umm.. thing.. tt our boys have to go thru during ns. basically, they are dropped in the middle of nowhere, given maps and compasses and have to make their way to 12 checkpoints in 3 days in the jungle. the main players are 2 soldiers, one overzealous, gungho one, and the other, a guy with a third eye. along the way, this third eye guy keeps coming across this girl, an "orang bunian" (ppl in another dimension) who sorts of leads them to all the checkpoints. at the end, the guy accidentally "shoots" the girl's bf with his blank rounds, and said to the girl tt he would bear responsibility. so the girl.. umm.. "takes him into her realm".. and he dies..

i guess the writer (who was also one of the players) tried to be helpful by inserting some religious elements into the play. although, at times, i found it kinda annoying in a dogmatic sorta way. especiali when they did not prepare a place for prayers altho the play was slated to start at 8 pm. so, basically, i did not know what to think la.. although, i would not want to judge in such circumstances. i belief it would be unfair to do so.

in terms of acting, i could say that subtle can be vivid sometimes. but, coming from some one who cant act for nuts, they did a good job. my favourite part was when the overzealous guy said tt ghosts were not real, tekong is reali very boring and the boys just make up the stories to impress their mums and girlfriends.

"U, hari tu kat Tekong I nampak hantu..."

"I terus kejar dia, tembak pakai blanks"

"Kan macam mana punya hero la!"

haha.

i wondered if its true. them just making up stories to impress. i mean, it is very plausible.

on the turn out, i was pleasantly surprised to say the least. there were about 50ish ppl there despite it being staged at cairnhill arts centre which is reali kinda out of the way and pretty dingy, to be honest. i also learnt tt they had a matinee show earlier, and i think the turn out must have been around those numbers too. to me, it kinda shows that hey, there are quite a number of ppl who are interested in the arts and ready and raring to support our local artists, ESPECIALLY if the work is something people can relate to.

im not an artist, so i wouldnt know. but from my experience of being around arty farty ppl, there are usually quite weird. as in, the way they think and the way they see things is normally very different from us 'normal' ppl. and of course, as an artist, i would expect them to have a heightened aesthetical "sense".

but wat im getting at is tt, artists reali shudn feel forsaken (or maligned) and deliberately set themselves apart from the society ( which is wat i feel some artists are always subconsciously trying to do). if they reali want to share the joys, thoughts and feelings of their art, then they must find a way to do it in a way that can touch and reach the audience easily.

in terms of financial support, i can see why local artists find it difficult to make a livelihood. we paid $12 for each ticket and i guess for this play they could probably make about $1000? (altho this is a terribly optimistic figure) takeaway their rent for the space, A/C and stuff and split it among 5 players. they wont reali get much. and its not like each of them can churn out a new play every week.. these things require a LOT of commitment in terms of TIME, SKILL and EFFORT to even present something that is halfway decent. so, there should be some empathy in terms of their financial plight.

that said, i do have some friends in the arts circuit who are supporting a very comfortable lifestyle, doing the things they love. for example, being a drama coach or choreographer for schools and stuff. i guess, just like any other person, hard work and diligence pay off. so, seen from this angle, it might be difficult to say that artists are poor (coz tts wat they all say).

and another thing, i believe we shud stop comparing our society and local audiences to audiences in Europe who are already well-versed and have sophisticated appreciation for the arts. i see that our society is slowly but surely becoming more and more receptive to the arts. the challenge here for our artists is to pacify audiences, give us more relevence and help us understand and appreciate the finer strokes of art.

so there. my sentiments for tonight.

and as for the play, mek gives 3.5 out of 5 stars.

good night.

=]