Pitapat Theatre's An Enemy of the People. At the Moment

Living in the Klang Valley, you kind of take it for granted that you're never too far away from the performing arts in one form or another as it's the epicentre of the local arts scene. So when a theatre company from KK comes all the way to this side of the country to put on three performances over the weekend, the curiousity is piqued. So I plonked down RM45 to see this on their opening night on Saturday. 

It is an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People. The intention is to experiment an original theatre language that can identify who and where we are, what we are encountering with, through a classic play. Inspired by Bertolt Brecht and minimalism of Asian traditional form (Beijing Opera, Noh Theatre etc), this production will turn the original naturalistic play into a stylized interpretation. It will be performed in multilingual (English, Malay, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka).

Had forgotten my wallet (again) and by the time I double backed and got to DPAC's Black Box, I was cutting it real close but the doors weren't closed yet as I got there before Malaysian 8.30 p.m., aka 8.45 p.m. Sat right in the back this time because everyone else got the more plum seating, which I didn't mind too much. Was kinda surprised to see nearly a dozen white people in attendance. 

Between how I haven't had any coffee that day AT ALL (at least, until the 10-minute intermission) and how my body's telling me to rest to fight off this cold/flu bug, I really wasn't in the head space for this weird spectacle of a theatre performance. The first 15 minutes (them "getting into character") already baffled/annoyed me, but my inner sucker stayed on to see how it panned out, and the ROI was not great. I probably should've cabut-ed during intermission like some people clearly did, but I didn't. I dunno if the applause at the end was even genuine or out of politeness. 

I was so under the weather/annoyed by the show, I left an anonymous, confused feedback (they gave out forms at the door), and left as quickly as I could before the Q&A session started because I really wasn't in the mood for that. 

It wasn't for me, but also, if you're reading this now, there's one last performance on Sunday night.