TIGA

Our last field trip for this semester. We went to watch "Tiga". Same venue as last time, at Five Arts Centre.  

Direct translate, Tiga = Three = 3.  Tiga's logo with triangle which made up by 3 sides. 

Tiga is a showcase of three monologues based on three objects brought by the young voices. It provides a platform for new and emerging performing art practitioners to develop their skills acting, writing, producing or directing. A task was given to an emerging scriptwriter to write 3 scripts based on 3 objects. 

Then the scriptwriter will pass on the challenge by nominating another scriptwriter and give him or her with 3 new objects to perform 3 more new scripts. New directors, producers, actors are involved in this challenge as well. 

This is the first edition of Tiga. Script by Sharifah Aleysha while the three objects featured are bed, chair and knife. 

"Bed" directed by Fahad Iman, performed by Inez Caryan. 

It's about a young woman fights with the idea of possession in a relationship. She doesn't seem ready to be in a relationship but she can't handle being alone either. She tries to talk to her sayang (sweetheart) by looking to her front view (which is where audiences sat), but he always stay silent. Sometimes, she holds a pillow with her hands at the back and walk at the edges of mattress. Sometimes, the actress wraps herself around with the blanket. It denotes she is going through some struggling moments in the relationship, to stay or leave. She tidies up by folding the mattress into a 1/4 of its square size, which implies that she is thinking of putting an end on the relationship. 

(Credits to Kaki Seni's Facebook)

"I am the conventional woman. Nothing scarier than that. We seem predictable enough until the day we are not."

(Lines quoted from Five Arts Centre's Facebook)

As a couple, they have commitment issue. She feeds his ego, he feeds her insecurities.

She goes mad talking about how her man talked about the women he met to her, including the lady boss he works with. Before we can expect what the actress will do next, she starts shouting and cursing with the four-letter F word to express her uncertainity being in this relationship. 

Just when her relationship begins to fall apart, she realizes how far she will go to maintain the relationship in order for her sweetheart to stay. She unfolds the mattress, putting all stuff back to its position. For instance, she decided not to attend the company meeting because she thinks her sayang needs her. 

Coming up next, "Chair". Andy Darrel Gomes is the director and Sharifah Aryana is the actress in this play.  

A young woman is trapped in her memories with her beloved mum. She can't seem to move forward without giving up her past. She misses her. She has no idea where she is. She talks to her mum, but no one replies. 

She raises her voice shouting "Mum, mum, mum", she definitely misses her mum a lot. She tries to sit on the chair but there's a force makes her falls down. She does this again and again. She keeps falling down. She wants to move on from her memories but couldn't. She was taught to always ask questions, but conflicts between daughter-mother happened when daughter asked the wrong question.

She reminisces the moment she spent with her.

"I would watch her cut each piece of vegetable so thinly and so quickly, almost like going into a trance. Then one day, she finally asked me to help. I was so excited. It felt like I was finally getting the recognition of entering womanhood. I remember holding the knife, trembling just a little bit. I started to cut and the next thing I knew, she slowly laid her hand on my shoulder. I stopped."

(Lines quoted from Five Arts Centre's Facebook)

Mum who always gives her advice and tells her what kind of person she should be. But she didn't listen to her mum, she did it her way. Their relationship got far apart.

She can't wait to see her mum again. She talks to her, talks to the air. When there's echo, she thinks it's her. When her mother asks her to dance, she feels malu (embarassing). To live in the memories again, she dances.

She communicates with her mum spiritually. Finally, she is able to sit on the chair peacefully. 

In this play, Aryana splits herself into two characters, mother and daughter. The blue lighting is added when she is acting the mum role. The scene turns yellow-ish, like a memory.








(Photo credits to kakiseni's Instagram)

The last play in Tiga, "Knife" directed by Arshad Adam and performed by Nora Rahim. 

"Knife", a young woman discusses her sexuality in ways common but not so common to society. How to do it? A cooking show. Nora Rahim who wears tudung teaches you how to make a salad. 

Every ingredient and tool is important to make the salad. From the ingredients like carrot, cucumber, vegetable, dressing and tools like knife, big bowl, gloves, each of them signifies something. For instance, carrot = dick, gloves = condom.

She also invited a male audience to help her crushes the vegetables. She tells him to make the "uh" sounds while crushing it. To this point, I'm pretty sure you know where is this sound from ... the sexual intercourse. 

Throughout the whole "Knife" play, the actress exaggerates her gestures and movement a lot. Obstacles might stop her, might freaks her out but it won't stop her eventually. Example? She enjoys cutting the carrot into thin pieces and cut even faster, then of course, she cut herself. Knife is a sharp item. If you don't use it carefully, end up you will hurt yourself.

She blows the gloves and wears it on the hand (Just like putting on the condom on sexual organs). While mixing the salads, the glove is broken! Oh no! The bacteria in your hand is more likely to have contact with the salad (It breaks your hope thinking the sexual process is 100% safe with condom but no)! Trouble is on its way...

"But please ah ladies, always put your gloves on before messing around with the dressing. No such thing toss with fork and spoon. The best made salads are the one hand tossed. So please please always wear gloves, later too late don't want to regret right?"

(Lines quoted from Five Arts Centre's Facebook)

Sex is a taboo but not when you're making fun of it. We often take this topic lightly, but we never talk about it seriously. That's what will happened.

The finish product, salad! Ready to serve! Hahaha

In all Tiga plays, there is only one performer participates in each play. The three actresses delivered their monologue lines in a mix of English and Malay. 

There is no fix interpretation towards every single detail in the plays. We can have our own context and understanding towards the three plays due to our differences in culture and personal experiences. 

In Q&A session, we were told that originally "Bed" has more props like dressing room, bathroom, table etc. In their meetings and rehearsals, they started to remove things and found that the meaning of this stories are best told by having what they have in the scene, which are one mattress, one blanket and two pillows. 

"Chair", but why chair? From the discussion, the director Andy Darrel Gomes thinks that the chair draws a borderline between heaven and hell. The daughter is not sure which side she's in. In addition, chair has its height, it's like people giving respect to another. Mum sits on the chair while talking to her daughter who sits on the floor. Mum is someone we respect.

An audience said the appearance of the "Knife" actress is contrasting to what she performed. Director Arshad Adam said it's his intention to do so. People will think this is the culture that limits her to talk about sex, but break it! It's a general topic, everyone should learn about it.

Talk about the lighting in the backdrop, is something amazed the audience. I guess no one notices it's the shape of vagina. The last minute idea from lighting designer Syamsul Azhar works wonderful!

Scriptwriter Sharifah Aleysha's approach on having male directors to direct the three plays is to let the males to learn more about females, experience what they experience. In addition, the choices of item are very intimate to us and basically what we see, hear and use in daily lives. We sit on the chair, cut the vegetables by knife, sleep on the bed...

The Tiga team. All young bloods seated in 3x3 arrangement, how cool it is! 

Henna-ed!

My groupmates and I decided to choose "henna" as our traditional Malaysian art form topic. In Malaysia, this beautiful skin decoration is widely practice in Indian and Malay culture. All of us have been living in the Chinese culture, basically we have no knowledge about it, so we gave it a try!

Originated in India and known as henna, or mehndi (in Hindi) or inai (in Arabic) is usually apply on body during celebrations such as weddings, Diwali, Id al-Fitr as a blessing. In weddings, it is said that the longer the henna stain stay on the skin, the bride will receive more love from husband and mother-in-law.

The mendhi contains fine and thin lines for floral, lacy and paisley patterns that cover up the entire hands, forearms, feet and shins. The traditional Indian designs are very intricate with detailed and abstract patterns. On the other hand, the Arabic henna designs, or inai are usually big in size with graceful floral and vine patterns on the hands and feet. The combination of Hindu-Arabic henna would have geometric triangles together with flowers.

After contacting a few henna artists, we went for Rabia Husain who is from Dubai and currently based in Malaysia. You can look up her Facebook (Noora's Henna & Makeup Art- Malaysia) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/rabuhusain/) for her fantastic henna work! :)

On April 5, we went all the way to International Islamic University Malaysia (UIA) right after we finished our Tuesday class. We were supposed to go to Gombak campus but instead, we went to PJ campus .... (My fault for wrong navigation -_-) ... So our journey for the day was like this:
UTAR Sungai Long campus -> UIA PJ campus -> UIA Gombak campus

Nevertheless, we made it!

This is just the entrance. UIA Gombak campus is so damn huge I have to say. (My groupmates said this is how an university should look like... LOL). We kept asking the students around to guide us the way to meet Rabia who had a booth in Edufest 2016 event. UIA students are very friendly (For real, thumbs up!).

Ta-da, our lovely henna artist! :D

She has a sweet voice and speaks fluent English!

Although we did a lot of research regarding henna, but we are just a bunch of kids that newly exposed to this traditional art (seperti rusa masuk kampung!). We got so excited choosing our henna designs as it was our first attempt! (Rabia said COOL!)

While we flipping through the henna designs showed in the folder, Rabia explained how the changes of henna stain on our skin from within few hours to a few weeks. She said we can choose the designs available from the folder or we can Google the design, she can do it for us.

Before began the interview, we asked her whether she is able to answer questions while doing henna for us. Yeah, it was a concern as we scared she couldn't focus, especially the drawing part requires a lot of attentions as henna is known as intricate art. She said no problem. Really appreciate how nice she is! :)

Henna-ing while interviewing! 

Rabia Husain is a self-taught henna artist. She has been doing henna since her teenage years. Her henna design inspirations came from herself, she loves drawing! She has weekend booth in The Curve there. Other than that, she also been receiving calls from universities to set the henna booth as it represent culture. 

I would said the interview session was quite a thrilling process. It was like putting all the information and facts we got to a test!  However, the outcome is a little different to our expectations. She practices Arabic style, so she only know whatever information she got from her side of influence. But since she's been doing henna in Malaysia, so we still manage to gain many information from her. 

Here's some fun facts we managed to get (which is not part of our findings)! 

1) Men love women with henna! They think it's beautiful, elegant and romantic. The fragrance spread from henna is also nice to be around! (For your information, the floral or mint scent)

2) Wearing henna can ward off the evil?? No such superstition! HAHAHA 

3) In Arabic style, the groom has to find his name in bridal henna?? In fact, JUST FOR FUN! They usually hide his initials within the design, the groom has to find it to prove their loves. So if the groom takes longer time to complete this task, the higher chance of the bride get upset! :P

We often see the henna paste selling in the market or Indian grocery shops. But do you ever wonder how it was made?

Rabia told us. Crush the henna leave into powder (Rabia uses the powder imported from India), mix it with essential oil, sugar and lemon juice, then keep it in warm temperature. Cover the henna in a plastic bag and do not let it mix it with air. Put it outside, wait for it to release the dye (The lemon juice is added to release the henna dye). Leave the henna dye outside for 24 hours to two days for better results. After that, can start to make the cone, fill the henna dye inside and tie it up. (P/s: If the henna paste is not in use, keep it in the freezer for many months and still have good colour!)

Other than that, Rabia emphasized the importance of natural/homemade henna paste. The instant henna paste (black, white, blue or other colours) that contains chemical substances are actually health-risking, which will eventually lead to skin problem like allergy. Although it looks nice, but you have to bear the responsibility. On a side note, it's NOT the traditional henna. 

White henna... don't do this! 

It's easy to identify whether the henna paste is natural or instant. The smell will do! As what I mentioned above, the natural one comes with floral or mint scent. The instant one, oh no, smell like ink! 

She told us that we have to wait for one to two hours to let the henna dry. After that, you can peel the harden henna off the skin. But if you want darker colour, you can leave it on skin for longer. 

The most common body parts that people get their henna is on their backs, hips, inner arms, outer arm, belly button, thighs, neck and chest. The face is not very common yet. Our henna artist also mentioned that henna is also painted on the heads of cancer patients because they lose hair. The cooling effect can make them to feel relax and calm. Worth a mention here, Malaysian henna artist Karthine Maniam did this too!

There are so many henna designs that capture our eyes. Rabia said the peacock or other flower designs used to be popular but people nowadays prefer roses. 

She can complete simple henna designs within 5 minutes while the more intricate designs will take hours to get it done. The only tool she uses is the henna cone (cone-shaped funnel). 

Talk about the difference between henna and bridal henna... Normal henna is just for casual and fun. Bridal henna is more elegant and sophisticated and involve more designs. Rabia joked no bride will goes around showing people that she has bird designs on her hand, "Hey, I'm getting married!" 

Men usually do not wear henna because it seen erotic, except for weddings. Speaking from Rabia's experience, she said there was once she attended a henna conference, the men there was curious about it and wanted to give it a try. They totally in shock when Rabia told them that men in their culture don't do it. But since they came so far to the conference, she still did henna for them :)

Although henna is getting more popular (includes the improper one LOL), Rabia promotes this traditional art form through social media such as Facebook and Instagram. Her booth in malls and universities also part of the strategy because these are where youngsters around.  

Isn't our henna beautiful? YESSSSSSSSSSSSS :D 

By the way, Rabia said the bird designs (Pek Fong and Yee Ling's) are more casual while the rose (Yee Hang's) and bracelet-design (Mine) henna are more traditional. She said the henna artists in Emirates don't do my design anymore.

While I'm getting my henna, Rabia asked me why I got interested in henna. I like the geometrical lines, it looks simple and nice. That's my answer to her :) 

Meanwhile, this is the process of getting henna done on our hands!

Mad love for my henna! It looks so elegant on a not-so-elegant-person HAHAHA! But now it faded completely... (Time for second henna?)

We took photo together after the henna session and interview! Smileeeeee :D 

To conlcude, henna is a traditional, beautiful, temporary and painless skin decoration. A wonderful experience indeed! (My groupmates like it too!) I have never thought of experiencing other people's culture. Previously I only have a general view on henna (as in you got henna, erm, ok), now I got to learn more in-depth about it culturally (new knowledge gained!), and I got beautiful henna on me! YAY! 

In other words, I have another option from temporary tattoo sticker! :P

For our presentation, we had a FOC henna session! Our beloved lecturer Dr Carmen had her first henna experience with us! WHEEEEE :D 

Even our classmates got so excited to try it on their own! Hehe :D

BALING

On 3 April, while the class is making their ways to our second field trip, I asked my classmates who sat next to me.

Q: What is the word "baling" means?

A: Throw.

(Sorry for my poor Malay...)

Although lecturer mentioned this play is regarding some historical events in Malaysia, but I still expect the "throwing" element would happen somewhere in this play. Later on, I only found out it's a place in Kedah, its name - Baling. (Ok, sorry again for my poor general knowledge) Also, I don't even know there was Baling Talk happened in our country's history. (Oh my sejarah...)

For this field trip, we went to Five Arts Centre to watch the 3pm 'Baling' theatre show.

Ticket, brochure & 14-page transcript distributed by Five Arts Centre crews. 

(It's my first time watching a theatre performance though)

Again, my expectation doesn't work. I was quite surprised to know the location is at the corner lot of a shoplots row. I thought the place is at least inside a building or whatsoever.

We are asked to remove our shoes before we enter the place. These are what first came to our sights...

Projector showing the slides of some historical facts.

Black&white mugshots and news articles hanging above the sitting area. 

Tons of history books (Textbooks, autobiographies...) related to Baling arranged in standing position.

We were first presented with the historical facts for around 10 minutes. Then we moved to upstairs for another segment.

The setting of upstairs performance area. Three sides of wall are fully sticked with the transcripts we got earlier. 

(Photo at the left and below credits to Five Arts Centre's Facebook.) 









There comes the main characters - Tunku Abdul Rahman (Chief Minister in Federation of Malaya), Chin Peng (Secretary-general of Malayan Communist Party), David Marshall (Chief Minister of Malaya) and Dato Sir Tan Cheng Lock. The performers are Faiq Syazwan Kuhiri, Fahmi Fadzil, Imri Nasution and Anne James.

The core idea of this documentary theatre is based on one of the most significant political moment in Malaysia, which is Baling, the negotiation talk between the leaders (as mentioned above) for independence and peace from the British to end the Malayan Emergency that took place in December 28, 1955.

Performers picking up the books.

(Photo courtesy to Five Arts Centre's Facebook)

The political leaders sit down to discuss for negotiation and surrender terms. 

(Photo courtesy to Five Arts Centre's Facebook)

The performers are seen to be reading the 1955 Baling Talk transcript. Not only that, they do not have a fixed character as they change from a character to another based on the scenes. In addition, they don't have a stage. We the audiences who sit on the floor, are not very far from where the performers stand to perform their acts. When they walk across the audience seats, it makes me feel like the political leader is near to us, as if we are the nation. They used different props such as transcript, book, mugshot in different scenes.

Other than reenacting the controversial moments, the performers also offer their perspectives by bringing in their personal work (eg: researches, interviews) into this play. This totally gives us a "21st century views" from the historical event. An interesting attempt of storytelling.

Besides, this is not the typical theatre. It's a site-specific theatre or site-responsive theatre. We move from downstairs to upstairs, then move to downstairs again. Sometimes, the performing area is here; sometimes, the performing area is there. All depends on where the performers stand. In other words, you will never get to sit comfortably in the same spot. But, don't it suggest us to look things from different angles?

In this 'Baling' play, the team casted performers from different race and gender. As told by lecturer, Five Arts Centre is different from others theatre companies as they cast performers from different races for their multiracial performances. True that, a performer's ability shouldn't be stopped by all these boundaries and limitations.

While watching this show, forget about the performers' appearance, I mean the skin colour and gender. All you have to do is immerse yourself into the characters. Throughout the whole 'Baling' play, you can easily identify who acts as Tunku by whoever wears the songkok (Because Malay men wear it). For others, identify their characters through the dialogues.

I was dumbfounded when Anne James wears songkok. I know from time to time, they exchange characters. But in my mind, "So this lady is Tunku now?" ... I've never seen a lady wearing songkok, that explains my dumbfounded feeling. I just need some time to adjust what I see and feel.

Well, the shifting between characters in performers is not a bad thing. I questioned this to our tutor, I agreed what she said. By doing this, we wouldn't have bias feeling towards the performers. For instance, Tunku -> David Marshall -> Chin Peng, each of these leaders have different ideologies. This is quite new to me.

Of all segments, the most heart wrenching part for me goes to the last segment, when Imri Nasution played the unreleased interview footage of Chin Peng (whose real name Ong Boon Hua) that him and his team originally shot for their documentary project in 2010.

Chin Peng was old. He couldn't speak well, he took long time to digest the question and think of what to answer. The smoothest conversation is only when he expressed his only desire. He wanted to return to his country. Where he born, is also where he wants to die and be buried. He was very desperate and firm about this. But in the end, what he wished didn't come true, until today, even his remains are still not allowed to make a return.

I feel really emotional. If we're just plain human without knowing his background, Chin Peng was just an old man afterall. This old man had a wish: Return to his home (Malaysia), that's it. But the reality is, once the 'Public Enemy No.1', forever a 'Public Enemy No.1'. My thoughts are... Ya, maybe he made mistake, but who has the authority to judge? Different people have different methods in doing things. Some may agree, some may disagree. The history is the past. Are you currently living in the past? This man is not worth for a second chance? :/  Reality, it is. Sigh.

Apart from that, it solved my curiousity towards this most wanted man in Malaya. I've only seen and heard his name in news article or programme, but never really know more in-depth stories about this sensational figure.

Tunku fought for Malaya's freedom. Chin Peng had the same goal as well, but his ideologies are not well supported. In the end, Chin Peng rejected the surrender terms offered by Tunku's side. Then, Tunku became the first prime minister of Malaya (and Malaysia), known as the Father of Independence. Nevertheless, the result doesn't define who is the winner, I suppose?

 

Close up of the black and white mugshots & articles. It's Ong Boon Hua, aka Chin Peng.

Group photos with the casts and crews :)

Baling is definitely an eye-opening theatre performance. As a 90s who doesn't not pay much attention to Malaysian history, this alternative way of education broadens my horizons in historical view. We might not really know what happened that time, but this documentary theatre is able to provoke your critical thinking between the ideologies of nationalist (Tunku) and communist (Chin Peng).  

Stand up for the truth, would you?