Pop Quiz... King Lear

Last Wednesday, 19 September, Dr.Edwin held a pop quiz on King Lear… I managed to answer all the question as it was sort of easy to answer questions. What delighted me the most was that I managed to score 9 over 10 for the pop quiz…I was so happy… at first I thought the quiz would be tough as I was not sure of the story line as it confused me and that I would not be able to answer all the questions… i actually discussed with my friends on the points of the story so that i could remember it better... it actually helped alot in answering the questions... Luckily the question was just based on the characters and the important events that took place… overall I was very happy with the result as it got paid off after a long day of reading the play…

4.48 Psychosis

Last Thursday, 13th September 2007, I went to see a play entitle 4.48 Psychosis at KLPAC with my friends. We went there by komuter and reached around 7.50pm. We though KLPAC was opposite the railway station so we decided to walk. Unfortunately we were lost… = ( We then decided to take a taxi to KLPAC. We reached KLPAC around 8.20pm. The building we thought was KLPAC was actually a show unit building. I was not sure what it was actually… anyway… after arriving, we bought tickets… I saw Gavin Yap. At first I don’t know he was the producer of the play… after reading an article outside the theater, I got to know bout it…. In the article, I also got to know that it was talked about play and a very popular play… Ok as it was my first time watching a play, I felt out of place as the people come there were so called ‘High Class’ , u can tell it by their style and clothing. I felt so so out of place…
As I entered the show, I though the sittings were according to numbers stated on the tickets, but actually we could sit anywhere… at that moment I thought to myself, how naïve could I be… then the lights were off… but the play haven’t started… hmmm… I was thinking to myself… why haven’t it started yet??… Then after waiting about 10 minutes I guess, the play started… I really don’t know why they must wait for 10 minutes to start the play??I watch the play with full enthusiasm… I watch how the actor and actresses bring their character out with full emotions… the play was difficult to understand as it was very abstract… later then I understood that it was actually dealing with a thought of a woman with two parts of the her which is the soul and the body… interacting with each other… I think the part of the body should be given to a actress rather than a actor as it really confused me especially… it’s dealing with woman’s though, so why can’t they just use an actress… it wouldn’t complicate the story… but they were so good in portraying the characters. I too was brought into the character… the only thing in the play that gave me a culture shock was there was too much usage of the word ‘Fuck’… *sigh* … hmmm… I still remember one utterance that one of the actresses, Susan Lankaster which really struck me… ‘I fuck you God’. It’s still fresh in my mind and I could hear it repeatedly in my mind… I think it’s because of the environment that I was brought up where these kinds of utterances are taboo among my family members.
While watching the play I felt too rigid as I couldn’t do anything but just being static in the theater hall, it’s unlike in the movies where I can do what ever I want to do… its pin drop silences!!! Even my phone’s vibration could be heard… I felt so embarrassed!!
The play ended at about 9.30pm… Overall, I think its nice play but it’s kinda a difficult for me to interpret… and I had to combine the pieces to actually get the idea and comprehend the play… on the other hand, I also got an idea of how to act in front of the audience as next semester I would be taking the subject theater.. It a good exposure to me actually..

Anike

After finishing the play Pygmalion, my class started on another play which was Anike. It was a similar play as Antigone but it was written in a Malaysian context because it was written by a Malaysian writer by the name Wong Pui Nam. For me I felt the play was as interesting as Antigone. At first I felt a bit confused coz it was kinda a different a bit from Antigone and it confused me a lot. Thanks goes to my lecture DR. Edwin who actually clarified my confusion on the play. I could actually understand better the play and relate it back to Antigone. I also could see the similarities and differences found in the play. After reading and studying the play, I felt that Wong Piu Nam is a good play writer as he could actually revise a play from a Greek play into Malaysian context! So, there nothing Malaysian can’t do!

Pygmalion- The Movie

The movie Pygmalion was supposed to be viewed in Bilik Seminar. Unfortunately Bilik Seminar was being used for a meeting so we viewed the movie in Bilik Tayangan.
At first, when the movie was being played I was surprised to see that it was a black and white movie thus I lost my interest in viewing the movie. In my mind, I thought ‘this might be one of the boring movie’ eventually my prediction was wrong; it was really an interesting movie to watch. Actually if given a chance, I would like to watch it again!!. The movie helps me to understand better the play. Now if I read back the novel I could imagine the characters and the flow of the story. Through the movie I got to know that Proffesor Higgins is not an old man but quite a young man actually. This is because in the play he portrays himself as an old bachelor. I realize that it’s just a saying that he uses to describe himself. This shows that the movie is actually a great help to students like me to get a clear picture and understand the play better.

FIRST TEST

Last Friday, I had the first test for Drama class. It was supposed to be on Wednesday but due to the size of class it was postponed to Friday. I really wished it was on Wednesday as I did not have to reread again the notes. The test on Friday in my opinion was tough. I find it difficult to answer some of the questions. However I managed to answer all of the questions. I really hoped that I will do better in this test as it is the first test. After the test we were to watch Pygmalion the movie. I was excited to watch the movie as I felt that by viewing the movie I could get a clear and better understanding of the play.

Pygmalion- from a myth to a play

The play Pygmalion is actually illustrated from a myth Ovid’s Metamorphosis. This I knew after doing some research on the play itself. In both the myth and the play, both of the man hated women and decided to create the women of their choice. The sculpture, Pygmalion who wanted his desired women crafted the women that he wanted and fall in love with his statue he made sacrifice to goddess of love, Venus to bring the statue alive. Venus granted his wish. Pygmalion then married his statue, Galatea.
In the play Pygmalion, Professor Higgins also created new women out of Eliza a flower girl who doesn’t know to speak Standard English. The only difference from the myth is that Proffesor Higgins didn’t fall in love with Eliza but she left him. In this case the statute (Eliza) did not stay with her sculpture (Prof. Higgins) but left him.
I never knew that Pygmalion has a parallel with a myth until my lecture asked me to do some research on Ovid’s Metamorphosis. It’s really amazing to see how Shaw relates the myth to his own play. I feel Shaw is really a creative writer. In this way he could educate younger generation on the myth as it’s kinda difficult to understand the myth.
In Shaw’s Pygmalion, it’s kinda improvised version of the myth with a little comedic aspect in it to make the play a more interesting play thus finding it easier to understand the myth by understanding the play itself.