1984 Here and Now
1984 Here and Now, a play by well-known Malaysian political
writer Kee Thuan Chye. It is adapted from George Orwell’s novel 1984. New Era
College is staging this play from 28 July 2016 until 31 July 2016.
The venue is
Black Box Theatre. I was very excited because it was my first time to visit
Black Box Theatre. The Black Box Theatre is really awesome. It is an empty and
large room with black walls. The design of scene are set freely. We went to
watch the first show on Thursday night. I am really impressed by the environment. It
was so cool.
The issue raised in this play is the culture of fear imposed
by the ‘Big Brother’ (Mahathir government). People are so afraid of
broadcasting controversial issue. Besides that, the racial discrimination is
mentioned in this play as well. It is scripted in 1984 and now it is 2016.
Obviously, all of these problems are not yet solved. These problems are still
existing. There are some racial issues as well. For example, lion dance is
banned and not allowed to perform in public. In my opinion, the problems are
not solved when another is coming.
(Retrieved from http://quotesgram.com/unite-quotes/)
Back then, people has no freedom of speak.
In fact, we have but we shouldn’t. Now, we still encounter the problems. For
example, the Malaysia artist is arrested under sedition act.
(Words from Mr Kee)
After I watched this play, I start to think. As a Malaysian,
what can I do for my country? The statistic showed economic has dramatic
dropped. Seriously, Malaysia is currently facing some real challenges. Falling
value of the ringgit, education system…………
This flow of this play is good. In fact, I feel like two
hours of show is not enough as it was too awesome. The first thought came to my
mind. I was thinking that, ‘Am I choosing the right course?’ Now, I am studying
broadcasting. It is mainly focused on backstage work such as technical stuffs,
editing, production house and so on. My main interest is performing arts. Back
then, I was so not brave enough to choose performing arts as the job
opportunity is very less. However, I am strongly interested in doing these. (acting,
singing and dancing). On the show day, I made friends with someone who is
studying performing art. The feeling is so good when talking with someone has
same interest with me.
Photos with all the actors and actresses.
Besides that, I found that there are many similar issue
which mentioned by Dr Carmen in class. For example, people wearing other races’
traditional costume. In my own perspective, I think it is nothing wrong to wear
other races’ traditional costume or acting as other races. I don’t feel weird about it. Instead, I am
used to it. My mother always wear Malay costume such as Baju Kebaya, Baju
Kurung, selendang and so on. She has more Malay costume than Chinese wearing.
In my opinion, we can’t limit other people’s interest.
(Photo of my mother and queen of Johor.)
(Photo of my mother and King of Johor.)
In addition, I think that the language used is quite
difficult to understand. For the whole show, they used Mandarin to communicate
and their standard is so high level. Sometimes, I can’t get the meaning of
certain sentences. I also agreed with Dr Carmen. Language is very important.
For those who are English educated, they can’t really understand the play. We
must have one national language or any common language which everyone can
communicate. For example, one of my family members can’t understand Mandarin
and whenever we speak in Mandarin, he will feel very frustrated and annoying.
He even exit our family whatsapp group. He told me that it is very annoying to
see those Chinese character and he doesn’t really understand what we are
talking about.
(Retrieved from https://www.theodysseyonline.com/understanding-language-barriers)
(Retrieved from 1984 Here and Now FB Page)
