Ah Steve


AhSteve
Swiped from williamnyk.
What is art? I don't really know.

I've watched arty-farty foreign films with weird scripts, naked men and women (porn is art, art is porn? If that is the case, I'm practically an expert, :D) and senseless camera angles. Some I liked, most I brushed off as crap.

I've watched Cirque Du Soleil's Quidam and the explosion of sights and sounds in front me was mesmerising. And yet I left confused.

I've watched tragic musicals and heard Chinese orchestra pieces, and I found the folksy stuff very close to my heart.

I've been to art galleries and photography exhibitions, but I can't find myself too engrossed in anything I see.


So continuing on my road of "non-discovery", I've been introduced to a piece of performing arts-- Ah Steve. A play, to be exact. After a great (and expensive) dinner at Xenri, Old Klang Road, KH and I headed over to The Actors Studio, Bangsar shopping Center. My car was dying on me again. The gears were jamming up once again and the mechanics are not open till next week. I hope it can last a few more days. We reached the venue with time to spare. NTV7 was there to interview Faridah Merican. A tame affair for an opening night. Many interesting faces. Joanna Bassey and a few patrons who looked like they walked out of a Philosophy Men ad.

It was my first time at the Actors Studio. I didn't notice it was so small. The seats are so close to the stage. A very intimate setting. Well, on the review. Basically, it's a short play about Steve who is supposed to play Suzy (aka Mother Mary, watch to find out why) in his parish's Nativity play. The story enfolds itself via his conversations with the town shrink, Dr Lau, squabblings with his promiscuous sister, Jane, shouting matches with his holier-than-thou Aunt Tabithaand his prayers to dead mother and Jesus. It tells the story of how Steven grapples with a strange happiness that engulfs him when he is chosen to play a woman's ("not just any woman, but a holy woman") role in the play. The exhilaration of donning lipstick. It touches on homosexuality, cross-dressing, superstitions, family ties, social pressure and religion.

Mark Beaue the Silva is very expressive and Carol Wu as the leg-spreading town whore deserves a special mention. The play is dotted with plenty of interesting observations and Hokkien and is quite a rib-tickler. So, if you get the chance, go watch it. And if you really like My Little Pony, you must definitely go.

After the play, we headed down to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for a Mocha Ice-blended (Extreme-it!). On the way down, we followed 2 kids (about yay high... can't imagine? Form 2 la. :D) down the escalator. They saw the play too. Here's a snippet of their conversation:

Kid 1: The highlight of the play was when Steven declared he was gay.

Kid 2: Yes, I agree. The play was good. The interaction between the characters was excellent...


Wah lau... setahun jagung dan pandai datang berseni dan berfalsampah... Kids these days. To end the night, we headed over to KH's coursemate's place for a bit of gambling. I actually won RM2.00 this year. I know it's nothing to shout about, but coming from someone who has extremely bad gambling-luck, escaping with my shirt on my back and an extra RM2.00 in my wallet is considered GOOD. Hope everyone had a fun CNY. Back to work!

PS: I wanna watch Alih Punggong (Gamelan @ KLPAC) too, but no time la...

Comments

Anonymous said…
Probably gonna catch it when it comes to Penang next month.

Yeah, I've always been unlucky at gambling but my luck turned too this year when I won almost RM30.

I was SO SO happy until my car air-con broke down unexpectedly and I had to pay RM65 for repairs.

Damn.
Jason said…
If porn is art, then every guy out in the world is a master in differentiating art! 2 dollars is a lot if you have bad luck! hehehe
Derek said…
I have no idea what you meant in your first two paragraphs.

And er .. sorry for being picky, but it's Mark Beau de Silva

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