Inspired by Yasmin Ahmad’s final film, ‘Talentime’, as well as Abdullah Hussain’s novel, ‘Interlok’, Parah is a timely exploration of how identities are contested in a young, pluralistic nation. Funny, provocative and moving, Parah asks urgent questions about love, home and belonging.

One would expect a certain threshold for sensitivity especially as it involves elements from  Talentime and the Interlok issue, however, the script-writing, directing and acting by the brilliant team has managed to somewhat blend it all into something much closer to home, something we often tend to miss when we’re too focused on the problem at hand.

Melor (familiar name?), a rational and moderate Malay woman, played by Farah Rani

As with Talentime, the play focuses on Malaysia’s three largest race population – the Malay, the Chinese and the Indians. Quoting from the “Interlok” book, which looks to be the main focus of the play, the audience are forced to face a question that most would not like to ponder: “Who are the indigenes and who are the immigrants? ”

Mahesh, often most misunderstood and confused, played by Mervyn Raj

When you’re a minority, what do you do? Revel in the light of being unique? Or do you prefer to look for acceptance when others abhor you, or look down on you? Is there a grain of truth in even the most repellent stereotype? Finally, what creates stereotypes – do the traits come in born, or are they created, taught and become accepted as a permanent part of life? 

This play takes you on a twisted journey to discover one of the many reasons why, as we grow older, we often tend to feel disunited with evergrowing mistrust, and most of all – always misunderstood.

Kahoe, afraid of rejection, stranger to his own Chinese heritage - played by Gregory Sze

Forbidden love? Maybe. Perhaps more than that, what happens when you are challenged by the fact that slowly, but surely, the traditions and culture, the language that your ancestors once had, disappears as you grow older and even more so when you have a family of your own?

And now couple that with the fact that you’ll always be recognized by your race, at least here in Malaysia - will Malaysians be able to survive losing their original identity, yet constantly facing huge machineries who exists to make sure the races are separated, never to be united under one nation?

When will you ever be able to call Malaysia your home, regardless of any race you belong to, without someone saying that you do not belong there? In fact, what power does a word have to shape the reality of your circumstances?

Hafiz, with his insecurities, refuses to be involved in other's plight. Could there be a reason behind this attitude? Played by Iedil Putra

The refusal to be involved in problems where you yourself is not affected seems to be prevalent to Malaysians. People complaining about peaceful assemblies, saying they cause roadblocks and being inconsiderate, when they are actually fighting for their rights on behalf of those who complain, is one example. Why is this so? Why is there a need to protect oneself so strongly, that you forget the plight of others?

Maybe the question we should be asking ourselves should be about, why are “they” acting the way they are – is there a very deep underlying reasoning behind one’s action which is so deep, so hurtful, so resentful that calls for this sort of behaviour? This play forces you to think about this thoroughly, using powerful emotional performances by the casts, who will move even the most steady of you.

The unique setting it's made in, a brilliant mix of humorous and dark scenes, makes for a dynamic and gripping play.

I left the room shaking, trembling, allowing myself to soak the gist of Parah, what it meant, for me and for others. Tears definitely dropped, more than once. Peals of laughter were present too. Within what seem to be a short length of time, I felt like I’ve taken a ride on an emotional rollercoaster, with a powerful message meant for me waiting at the end. Coming from a background that is bent of nation building and development of youths, this is what I had to ask myself:

Is civic nationalism possible in any society obsessed with race?

Alas, it is a question I have no answer to yet. However, I do feel rejuvenated, refreshed, especially after the casts described their ultimate goals to me (one of which is to be the the first female Malaysian National Laureate!) – it certainly has given me renewed conviction to prove that there MUST be a solution out there, and I’m not alone in looking for it

Please go and watch the play, there’s tickets left only for tonight and tomorrow! Details as per below:

Presenter: Instant Café Theatre Company

Genre: Stage Play
Date & Time: 1st, 2nd , 3rd SOLD OUT!!, 4th , 5th, 6th February 2012 @ 8:30pm
4th & 5th February 2012 @ 3pm
Venue: Pentas 2, Ground Floor, The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre
Ticket Prices:
Wednesday: RM38 flat-rate
Thursday – Sunday: RM48

CONCESSION PRICING RM38 (limited to 4 rows of seats = 76 seats)
*Concession price includes Student, Disabled, Senior Citizen and seats are allocated at the top row or ground row.
(all ticket prices are inclusive of Rm3 ticket handling fee)

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/255581757839791/

The Instant Café Theatre presents
PARAH: a showcase performance 

WRITTEN BY Alfian Sa’at
DIRECTED BY Jo Kukathas

STARRING
Iedil Putra Alaudin (@iedilputra)
Farah Rani
Gregory Sze
Mervyn Raj

SYNOPSIS 
Melur is a Form 5 student studying in Kuala Lumpur. When she hangs out with her friends, Hafiz, Mahesh and Kahoe, they look like the poster children of 1Malaysia, a slogan celebrating multiracialism and nationhood.
One day, Melur discovers that a page from a novel that was lying around in her room has been torn out. The trouble is that the novel belongs to her schoolteacher mother, who uses it as a literature text. Investigating further, Melur realizes that the page that has been torn out contains the word ‘pariah’, deemed controversial by the Indian community.

The only suspects are the three boys, who had visited Melur’s house during the school holidays. As they begin to read it, however, the four students start to question some of the histories presented in the book, histories that they are supposed to claim as their own.

Written by:

Alfian Saʼat, Playwright

Multi award winning playwright, Alfian Saʼat is a Resident Playwright with theacclaimed Singapore theatre company WILD RICE. His published worksinclude two collections of poetry, ʻOne Fierce Hourʼ and ʻHistory of Amnesiaʼ, acollection of short stories, ʻCorridorʼ, as well as two collections of plays.Alfian has been nominated six times for Best Script at the Life! Theatre Awardsin Singapore, winning in 2005 for his play, ʻLandmarksʼ, and later in 2010 for hisplay, ʻNadirahʼ, directed by Jo Kukathas.His plays have been translated into German and Swedish and have been readand performed in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, London, Zurich, Hamburg, Berlinand Stockholm.

Directed by:

Jo Kukathas (@jokukathas), Director

Artistic Director of The Instant Cafe Theatre Company and of CHAI, Jo Kukathas is an award winning actor, writer anddirector.Directing highlights include: Midsummer Night’s Dream,Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Hero, Air Con, M! TheOpera, and the famous ICT reviews: The Bolehwood Awards,Mass Hysteria, Kurang Manis, 1Sex1Money1Scandal. Herinternational directorial work includes Pulau Antara (Tokyo, KL),Hotel Grand Asia (Tokyo), Break-ing/Silence Please (KL, Tokyo,Singapore), co-director of Nadirah (Singapore), and PARiAH(Singapore).In 2004 Jo established FIRSTWoRKS, a writing program todevelop and direct new Malaysian plays with a differentgeneration of young writers. This program created the awardwinning plays Flies and Foreigners by Ridzwan Othman, AirCon by Shanon Shah and Hero by Arun Subramaniam – whichwent on to win New Zealand’s top New Writing prize.Her diverse work in theatre has taken her around the world andshe has performed and conducted workshops in Japan,Germany, Korea, India, Singapore, Taiwan, China, Philippines,Indonesia, Australia and the USA.

Do you remember when I last posted about IKEA’s global annual Soft Toy campaign? Well, obviously someone did when she, from all the way in the UK, e-mailed me to let me know that she’d bank in some money to my account just to buy some of these toys for the kids in Malaysia, those who need love and happiness in their lives. Her exact words was “I would have done it here (in the UK) but I’d rather help out the poor kids in my country – that has more meaning to me”. Aliaa, you seriously ROCK!

Through platforms like IKEA, countless of people could contribute back to the society all over the world, with just a small (but significant) initiative like this. Meet the few toys who have all met their new owners – Mr Carrot, Miss Strawberry and Dr Broccoli! I like the fact that they represent good vegetables that one should eat for a healthy diet. Well thought of, guys at IKEA!

They are countless of other toys available too. While it may seem “useless”, I suspect that some of us may have taken for granted things that we’ve always had – try to remember if you’ve ever played with some sort of toy. Chances are, you have. A lot of these kids in orphanages crave for love in this form, but never did get it.

Of course some of the toys cost a little more, and are more beautiful then others – but to maximize what Aliaa donated, we preferred to select the vegetable toys that was just about RM25 ish – which means we could buy about 9 of them = 9 happy kids! (besides, getting them vegetable & fruit characters are just too cute, and has better intentions, kan?)

So this is Mr Carrot! Say hi to Mr Carrot One of the criteria that @Missy_a_n gave me was that she wanted a toy that wasn’t too small that they could swallow it, rather, a large one where they could hug it to sleep. When I saw Mr Carrot here, I melted. You’d feel the same, kan?

And this is Miss Strawberry. How can you not love her? The girl (or boy!) who ended up getting this will grow up rosy thanks to the sweet colour it has. I swear to you, the material is so soft and the touch is smooth to hold, so much so that I couldn’t resist hugging her myself!

Last but not least, Dr Broccoli. Don’t know why I gave him the title Dr, but he looks smart doesn’t he? Looks like the type of food that if you eat it, you will get smarter. I think it’s a great way to get these kids to eat veggies, though it does sound a little weird – to eat a replica of your toy! (Ps – I think he’s a Scottish, with that skirt he has on!)

And so we (Melvin, my very good friend) went ahead and bought all 9 of them. We had so much fun taking it to the counter getting stares from everyone else haha. Two professional-looking guys, holding nothing but toys – TOO ADORABLE!

However for some reason, this photo that we got a random friend I bumped into (I think she thinks I’ve turned cuckoo lol) looks a little sick… and I have absolutely no comments on this!

Finally it came to the point where we had to part with our beloved Mr Carrot, Miss Strawberry and Dr Broccoli. Even Melvin here looks sad. Doesn’t he suit well carrying those toys? Sigh. But hey, at least it’ll make some nine, love-needed kids happy, no? It’s all good

So here we are, this is the lady who will be sending the toy over to an orphanage – seeing as I was a little too busy running quite a number of things this year. Thank you so much for helping out Carmen, and I really hope the kids who receive this would have a big smile plastered all over their faces, if only for the short moment the toy lives with them. Every second counts, and every little thing makes a difference.

Before I went back home, I enjoyed a piece of nasi lemak and asked myself, I must have made quite an effort going this far just to make 9 little kids happy, and the money that @missy_a_n gave us should have been part of her hard-earned money, so why bother doing something like this again? Within those moments, I then realized that it is because companies like IKEA has reminded us how efforts like this can be done so easily, thanks to the kind of resources they have, added with our little kindess, and with that we can impact the world globally, as this initiative runs throughout all their stores all around the world in God know how many countries.

Yes it is the same @missy_a_n who sponsored my heels at the Global Walk-A-Mile-In-Her-Shoes Day

So we were wrong to think that we’d be the only ones involved in this effort;  there’s probably countless of people who participated in this initiative, which means that the impact is probably bigger than we realized – hence it really was worth every single second, and I really hope to participate in any sort of initiatives like this next time. If you do, too, follow IKEA Malaysia on Facebook, or myself on Twitter (@spinzer) and stay tuned to our updates till the next time this happens! Thanks for reading, and thanks, @missy_a_n, for this realization

So @meiyingt and I decided that we shall do this one proper – and as they always say, the third’s time a charm! (at least compared to our first, ah, the humble beginnings)

That’s why we’re gonna have it at Ritz Carlton! Woohoo! (no more getting lost in some foreign place like the last one, video taken by @euveng )

Check out the details here: http://twtvite.com/lousangtwtupritz

So what is #lousangtwtup all about? Well, Twitter has been instrumental in many of us getting to know like-minded individuals who then become our great friends, at least to me lah. One day we thought, hey, #twtups are a cool way to get to know one another, let’s organize events out of pure fun! The results? Our 1st #twtclub event

And of course, the 1st #lousangtwtup as well, where even the rap meister @altimet came for! See pics below:

From left bottom-up-bottom right: @dustyhawk @kruel74 @loveykatz @ling_chan @arystle @wackybecky @joanne_kay @aprilyim @demonick @altimet

From left bottom-up-bottom right: @andygts @sarah_kow @redsheep @spinzer @joanne_kay @melvincwh @chowpong

From left bottom-up-bottom right: @serpentingal @royalshortness @yapthomas @auzani @reubenhot @sg_kl @diese @icednyior @azri83

Anyway I digress: the fact is, you can meet amazing people that you’d never have met and that’s why you should come! Also, the price per pax is only RM45 for such a high-class place, that makes it even more awesome

At the moment, we already have 25 RSVPs and we are expecting more than 40 people to show up. Those who would like to secure a seat at RM45, you’ll need to bank in the money to either @meiyingt or myself and after the 40 seats have been filled, others will have to pay RM50++ per person.

So BE A MAN, DO THE RIGHT THING and head over to the twtvite page and get in touch with us through Twitter/Facebook/Email/Phone to pass us to money to confirm your seat

PS- there WILL be girls, hoo haa!

OH AND ANOTHER PS!!!!

@MeiYingt and I are feeling rather generous so we’ll each be giving out one free seat – just tell me why you’d like to join us for #lousangtwtup this year in the comment box, and the most creative answer as judged by me will win a seat! (Shameless copy from Mei Ying’s post, so if you want to double up your chances, head over there now!

This contest will end 19 Jan, 12am. Good luck!

And I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. First time meeting @GermaniPro of #likealousai fame and his friend Junn, they tagged along as my invitees as we travelled to a “Secret” location where the Hennessy NyX, the latest bottle fashion of the year, is to be launched. Of course, other blogger friends were all there too, and it was a first of reunions of sorts since the “incident” that happened last year… and I couldn’t be happier

That’s Junn, not very sober, still conscious, but apparently she forgot how she conveniently put her heels into our shirts LOL!

Let’s just put it this way – I thoroughly enjoyed myself and let everything loose that day, something I wouldn’t have able to do the whole of last year. The liberating feeling  got better with Hennessy mixed along with it, for sure! So let’s start from the beginning guys

It all begin with a teaser at Midvalley East Wing, with pretty ladies all clad up in Lady Gaga outfit! Unfortunately we came a little too early and had to wait for our “tickets” to arrive

Of course they were there to introduce the latest bottle design for Hennessy, the NyX! And no, they don’t come with the ladies haha

I loved how they design the teaser area.. So POSH! And as with all Hennessy events, there was the game counter where you can play Ninja Fruits, Hennessy-style, on their iPad to win a bottle

Look who we saw! The ever beautiful Coco!

Finally, we got the “ticket” to enter the “secret” place, and by then, they told us where it is going to be so there ain’t no secrets anymore innit? haha!

Of course what is a party without the chicks? Thanks Regina for coming to teman lonely mua And boy you were gorgeous! Woo hoo!

Ps- the WHITE GLOVES are the TICKETS to the event! Yes you heard me right. Smart way to get people’s attention huh, since we had to walk from one end of the corner to Gardens wearing that glove. Brilliant move by Hennessy!

This is what greeted us at the venue – TRON like ladies woohoo! Love the lights! It was damn amazing wei

L-R: @LouiseXin, @Esther_N, Donovan Chan, @GermaniPro, Junn and @spinzer (pic credit to @theAgapeVox)

Meeting all the awesome people there totally made the night. Yes, there was great music, but more importantly, the crowd was too awesome <3

Other bloggers I met as well, awesome people! (pic credit to @zique)

All in all I loved the party, music, Hennessy and the crowd, but wasn’t too happy with the overcrowded venue, nor the stopping of free flow barely after 10pm. This was as opposed to previous HA events, where free flow is non-stop until you’ve had enough! Ah nevermind that, most importantly, the launch signified a great start to the year See you guys next time!

If you’ve been caught not reading the news on some of the best things that has happened in 2011 and do not want to be left embarrased ever again, this amazing rap by Jin Hackman (@JiniusAtWork) is your miracle solution – better yet, he gives you the Malaysian public’s response to each of them outrageous news!

Warning: some expletives may be used in this wrap up vid (hell if you don’t know what that word even means, shut off that damn monitor, son!)

Awesome mentions in the video include (the best of the best in 2011) after the jump – until then, here’s hoping to a better 2012!

Brought to you by Tapau.TV

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