LADY SWETTENHAM
April 23 - May 01, 2004.
Panggung Bandaraya
Produced by Masakini Theatre
Company
Directed by Christopher Jacobs
Lady Swettenham
takes the audience down memory lane, to the year 1877. While her
husband, Frank Swettenham, who would later become the first
Resident General of the newly formed Malay Federated State,
busies himself with affairs of the colony, Lady Swettenham, his
naive bride, sets foot on Singapore full of romantic
expectations and adventure. She is, however, vastly
disappointed, surmising it as an unfriendly place inundated with
equally unfriendly expatriate consorts whom she mirthlessly
referred to as “the old biddies”. As the years pass, her
personality spirals from a capricious and inquisitive girl to a
brooding, morose and belligerent being. Her descent into a manic
depressive is both shocking and heart wrenching to witness.
Written by acclaimed actor Sabera Shaik (Stories for Amah).
Cast:
Sandy Phillips – Sydney (Old Lady Swettenham)
Sasha Bashir – Connie / Sydney (Young Lady Swettenham)
Stuart Payne – Frank Swettenham
Baki Zainal – Kassim / Ensemble
Derek Ong – Cecil / Walter McKnight Young / Ensemble
Ha Wei Na – Henrietta / Ensemble
Jodie Mae Lariviere – Nurse / Mother / Rosie / Ensemble
Juliana Ibrahim – Siti / Eliza / Nurse / Ensemble
Lim Kien Lee – Scott / Ensemble
Lim Soon Heng – Hugh Low / Ensemble
Nicole Ann Thomas – Elizabeth Jane / Ensemble
Nor Hazlin Nor Salam – Meta Rome / Ensemble
Silvester Loo – Papa / Sultan of Perak / Ensemble
Kay Chin – Ensemble
Link: http://www.kakiseni.com/events/theatre/NTcxMQ.html
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RHINOCEROS
Dec 04 - 12, 2004.
Panggung Bandaraya
Produced by Masakini Theatre
Company
Directed by Christopher Jacobs
“Rhinoceros” is by Eugene Ionesco, one of the proponents of absurdist theatre. At first, a rhinoceros is heard walking through town. Then suddenly, another one appears, and another, and soon, one by one, people start turning into rhinoceros themselves, until finally, only a couple is left - Berenger and Daisy. Do they really want to live in a world overrun by rhinos? Or is it better to just become a rhinoceros yourself?
Cast:
Lim Soon Heng – Berenger
Terence Swampillai – Jean
Baki Zainal – Café Proprietor / Fireman
Derek Ong – Grocer / Little Old Man
Jodie Mae Lariviere – Grocer’s Wife / Mrs Boeuf
Kay Chin – Housewife / Little Old Lady (Voice)
Kay Li – Waitress
Ha Wei Na – Waitress
Lim Kien Lee – Logician / Mr. Papillon
Nicole Ann Thomas – Daisy
Nor Hazlin Nor Salam – Botard
Sylvester Loo – Old Gentleman / Dudard
Link: http://www.kakiseni.com/events/theatre/NjQ4OQ.html
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TARTUFFE
May 5 - 15, 2005.
The Actors Studio, Bangsar Shopping Center.
Produced by Cempaka Performing
Arts Co. & Stage Sense
Directed by Christopher Jacobs
A comedy by French satirist Moliere, presented by Stage Sense director Chris Jacobs. The well-off Orgon is convinced that Tartuffe is a man of great religious zeal and fervor. By the time Tartuffe, in fact a scheming hypocrite, is exposed and Orgon renounces him, the damage has been done.
Because of this play, the word 'Tartuffe' has passed into contemporary French and English; it means: 'a hypocrite who ostensibly and exaggeratedly feigns virtue, especially religious virtue'.
Cast:
Anne James - Dorine
Terence Swampillai – Tartuffe
Lim Soon Heng – Orgon
Baki Zainal – Valere
Derek Ong – Damis
Jodie Mae Lariviere – Elmire
Kay Chin – Madame Pernelle
Kay Li – Mariane
Lim Kien Lee – Cleante
Nicole Ann Thomas – Flipote the dog
Nor Hazlin Nor Salam – The Officer
Wong Wai Hoong – Monsieur Loyal
Link: http://www.kakiseni.com/events/theatre/NzAzNw.html
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MURDER MYSTERY
July 29 & 30, 2005
Bankers Club
What started out as a normal evening of merriment descended into chaos when one argument led to another, culminating in the murder of a guest. Who did it? And why?
Cast:
Sabera Shaik – Film Producer
Nicole Ann Thomas – Sabera’s Personal Assistant
Lim Kien Lee – Actor
Kay Chin – Actress
Baki Zainal – Wide Boy #1
Nor Hazlin Nor Salam – Girlfriend of Wide Boy #1
Derek Ong – Wide Boy #2
Wong Wai Hoong – Boyfriend
Kay Li – Girlfriend
Ha Wei Na – Pianist
Lim Soon Heng – Inspector
Sham Sunder – Constable
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HABEAS CORPUS
April 20 - 28, 2006.
The Actor’s Studio
Produced by Masakini Theatre
Company
Directed by Christopher Jacobs
A jaded doctor who does anything but relieve problems. A deprived wife. Their son with “sometimes 3 days, sometimes 3 hours” to live. A sister in-law blessed with the contours of a billiard table. A dedicated salesman from a breast-enlargement company. A love-sick clergyman. A drama queen on a bitter-pill overdose and her nubile daughter with a talent for whetting the appetite of many a man. A vertically-challenged big shot of the medical association. A patient with suicide on his mind 24-7. And a maid with too much time and too little to do.
Put them all in a blender and what do you get? A comedy of blips and blunders, twists and turns, carnal chaos and moral mayhem, as these dysfunctional characters play the game of life.
Cast:
Terence Swampillai – Dr Arthur Wicksteed
Sabera Shaik / Nicole Ann Thomas – Muriel Wicksteed
Baki Zainal – Dennis Wicksteed
Kay Chin / Geetha Anandarajan – Constance Wicksteed
Derek Ong – Canon Throbbing
Nor Hazlin Nor Salam – Mrs. Swabb
Lim Soon Heng – Dr. Percy Shorter
Sarah Shahrom / Sandra Sodhy – Lady Rumpers
Lum Kay Li – Felicity Rumpers
Lim Kien Lee – Mr. Shanks
Wong Wai Hoong – Mr Purdue
Link: http://www.kakiseni.com/events/theatre/ODEzNw.html
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In The Name of Love (with The Stronger as curtain-raiser)
Apr 26 – 29, 2007
Pentas 2, KLPac
Produced by
Masakini Theatre Company
Directed by Christopher Jacobs
In the Name Of Love is a work by
world renowned Odissi dancer Ramli Ibrahim, about three
monologues that mirror the Malaysian woman of days gone by,
reminiscing the good old days yet positively brimming with hope
for the future.
Sabera Shaik played all
three characters.
Deena
A Eurasian woman who from years of living in Malaya has adopted
and grown fond of its cosmopolitan lifestyle. In her young days
she hobnobbed with the rich and famous but since her husband’s
death in the hands of the Japanese insurgents, she has spiraled
from a vivacious socialite to a solitary, large and lonesome
woman given to reminiscing about her late husband and her past
loves.
Mak Su
A Makyong diva, reminisces about the good old days when one
traveled from small town to small town to perform the Makyong
and was paid for it. Now the state government has banned all
performances of Makyong and Mak Su sustains herself by drying
squids by the sea and recounting the days when she was at her
peak when audiences looked forward to her performances and how
she earned her name “Mariam Titisan Airmata” – “Mary of the
teary eyes”.
Sarasa
The story of a dance mother, who finds that pushing her daughter
too hard to excel in dance, does not pay off. Sarasa’s daughter
in a fit of anger and rebellion elopes with the tailor’s son and
leaves her mother devastated. She re-lives her own “celebrity”
days and ends up dancing around her daughter’s room, dreaming of
what could have been.
Link:
http://www.kakiseni.com/events/theatre/OTQyMw.html
The
Stronger
Produced by
Masakini Theatre Company
Directed by Christopher Jacobs
Written by August Strindberg, it
explores the brutal power struggle between two characters who
are as different as they are similar.
Cast:
Nicole-Ann Thomas & Kay Chin
(The two actors alternated between both roles in the course of
the run.)
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8 Short
Plays by SAMUEL BECKETT in “A Bucketful of Beckett: 8 Shots”
May 2 – 6, 2007
The STOR Theater, Bangunan Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka
Produced by the KL Ensemble
Directed by Christopher Jacobs
This was KL Ensemble’s maiden
effort since its official inception in 2006. A Beckett marathon
that is like the first of its kind in the local theatre scene.
This anthology featured some of Beckett’s most challenging works
for every human facet.
Catastrophe
A director and his assistant put the final touches to the last
scene of a dramatic presentation.
Lim Kien Lee as Director
Lum Kay Li as Assistant
Derek Ong as Protagonist
Chris Jacobs as Luke
Not I
A woman insisting that she did not.
Nicole-Ann Thomas as The Mouth
Lim Kien Lee as The Auditor
Rockaby
A woman sits and recounts details from her own life, and that of
her mother's.
Nor Hazlin Nor Salam as Woman in Chair & Recorded Voice
Play
3 people recount their affair.
Derek Ong as Man
Kay Chin as Woman 1
Lum Kay Li as Woman 2
Act Without Words II
Two men, two sacks, one goad.
Derek Ong as A
Lim Kien Lee as B
Come and Go
3 women and a secret.
Nicole-Ann Thomas as Flo
Geetha Anandarajan as Vi
Nor Hazlin Nor Salam as Ru
Ohio Impromptu
Two men, sitting at a table. The narrative tells of relief, loss
and love.
Lim Kien Lee as Reader
Derek Ong as Listener
What Where
4 characters enter and exit the stage.
Nor Hazlin Nor Salam as Bam and Voice of Bam
Lum Kay Li as Bim
Nicole-Ann Thomas as Bem
Geetha Anandarajan as Bom]
Link:
http://www.kakiseni.com/articles/previews/MTA4Nw.html
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