Norm & Ahmed is a midnight conversation between a Pakistani student and a cliche-familiar Australian workman; and what emerges not only confronts us with how little Norm and his fellow Australians understand about Asians but with how close Australia is to its near north. Both Norm and Ahmed, says Buzo perceptively, are aliens in the same country.
Norm & Ahmed was first produced in Malaysia by The Actors Studio in 1989, its very first production. It was directed by Joe Hasham and executive- produced by Faridah Merican. Norm was played by Joe Hasham and Ahmed was played by Mustafa Noor.
The 2019 production is part of The Actors Studio’s 30th anniversary. It will again be directed by Joe Hasham and executive-produced by Faridah Merican. Norm will be played by Australian actor, Kingsley Judd, and Ahmed will be played by Phraveen Arikiah.
After all these years, I still get a kick out of being at a show's opening night, more so if got flat rate ticket. Joe was greeting everyone as they walked in. The place was a near full house for a Tuesday night. Free seating is fine if you can get your preferred seats. There were some reserved for members of the press.
In keeping with the theme of Norm & Ahmed which is racism, the evening in klpac will begin with a selection of poetry and song featuring Amelia Tan, Ian Chow, Omar Ali, Mark Beau de Silva, Sandra Sodhy, Sheena B, Sukania Venugopal, and Dr. Wan Zawawi.
Faridah and Joe kicked things off by introducing the show and the performers for the first half. They were so endearing I don't think anyone really minded when they both went off on tangents. (I don't know if they're gonna be doing this every show, so...)
The first half took about 30 minutes. I'm not a huge fan of poetry, but my theory is that they added this part of the show to pad it out because no one's gonna leave the house for a 50-minute play. The first half was okay, I guess. I wonder if those performers were gonna stay for the second half for the rest of the run, but I guess I'll never know. Kinda glad for the 15 minute intermission.
As an audience member, it was a tense 49.5 minutes as we watch Norm try to get Ahmed to lower his defenses, throw him off guard by buttering him up. As someone who watches too much TV, I knew that it wasn't gonna end well for Ahmed (he got beat up, not sure if he died or not). Which I guess was mindblowing of an ending for 50 years ago, but these days...
Stray thoughts...
- I miss the days when tickets were RM30. Maybe I just missed the student concession.
- It was a bit weird and awkward for me personally when I saw that Joe was standing there, greeting everyone as they walked in.
- Ya, I can totally see Joe in the Norm role 30 years ago.
- Tickets are flat RM30 until the 14th.
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