LIGHT by Thomas Henning

From the copy... 

Drugs, guns, love, war, freedom, racism and free market capitalism. The theft of Penang, birth of Adelaide, and the rise of the British Empire.

In 1786 Francis Light claimed the island of Penang property of the British. Fifty years later his son, William, laid out the city of Adelaide. In the midst of all this, William’s mother evaporated.

Light is the phenomenal story of two generations of adventures and how the irreversible impact of their actions, continue to resonate today. One family, crushed between East and West, struggles for identity as history is slowly colonised. Within their lifetime’s humanity is divided into light and dark, us and them.

Another Friday night at KLPAC, this time upstairs in Indicine. Everyone was given a "programme" (using the word loosely here) - a double sided copy of an A3-sized hand drawn map with character descriptions scribbled all over, some of them hard to read. I ended up in what was probably the coldest seat in the house as the A/C was blasting unless I leaned forward. My view was also obstructed by another huge head right in front of me #storyofmylife 

Long and short is that it's about the Light family (Francis, William and William's mother, who ended up being a historical footnote someplace as no one can confirm her).

First act was about Francis Light. Yes, the "founder" of Penang (as a British colony), while the second act was about William the son and him planning the city of Adelaide. It's three people playing a bunch of characters between them. 

Noticed some people left during intermission (kinda obvious because there were more vacant seats in the second act). I don't blame them. But they missed out on Gavin Yap in tighty whities (as William) in the second act.

I can't quite make out about a third of the dialogue, especially toward the end, so I was mostly confused with what was happening. Even with the quick costume changes, it was hard to tell which character cast members were playing at any one time. Even the music got a little loud at times and it was hard to hear what anyone was saying, but it could also be the size of the room. 

Because these are "creative development" shows (fancy way of saying that it's still a work in progress lah), so when they finally present it in Australia, the final product might not even look and sound the same as it does now. 

• One of the characters was a Thomas Pigou. Their "pig glue" joke wasn't as funny as the Chinese word for butt is to some of us. 
• Got a ticket to preview night only because it was RM30 versus the RM45 cost afterwards.