Perhiasan Kaca by Teater Kami: A Tale of Broken Dreams

‘Perhiasan Kaya’ is adapted from a classic play ‘The Glass Menagerie’ by Tennessee Williams. ‘The Glass Menagerie’ is a four-character memory play by Tennessee Williams that premiered in 1944 and catapulted Williams from obscurity to fame. The play has strong autobiographical elements, featuring characters based on Williams himself, his histrionic mother, and his mentally fragile sister Rose. In writing the play, Williams drew on an earlier short story, as well as a screenplay he had written under the title of ‘The Gentleman Caller’.

The original work had been translated by Asrul Sani, an Indonesian dramatist. It was later adapted in Malaysia by Mustafa Noor for the theatre group, Drama Centre, Kuala Lumpur in the 80s. Teater Kami first staged 'Perhiasan Kaca' at Teater Kami Black Box (Singapore) in 2007. This 2nd staging is directed by Ms Atin Amat at Drama Centre Black Box from 2-3 Sep 2016. 

Although the original manuscript was produced in 1944, the issues raised are universal and relevant until today. One of the issues brought up was the need to continuously upgrade our skills and knowledge so that we can keep moving forward.

Farhana M Noor’s first debut in Malay theatre is nothing short of outstanding. Having been a familiar face on Suria, especially since she clinched the ‘Best Supporting Actress’ and ‘Most Promising Actress’ award during Suria’s 13th Pesta Perdana, it was a delight to see how versatile she is as an actress. She was very convincing as Zahara, a girl with an inferiority complex due to a slight limp on her left leg. It wasn’t made easier for her character to learn and gather strength to overcome her low self-esteem as her mother was constantly doing everything for her, not even allowing her to do her own dishes. Zahara was slowly coaxed out of her comfort zone during the later part of the play and the audience is then treated to another layer of her character who can get excited and passionate when sharing about her hobby.

My favourite scene was when Aminah, played by Dalifah Shahril was having a tiff with her son, Taufik, played by Md Suhailmi Ruslan or more commonly known as Amy Kecik. The chemistry between them is needless to say. Their constant bantering was a joy to watch and I believe many of us would be able to relate as we have such conversations with our sensitive elderly mothers who are authoritative and can be quite fickle-minded at times. One moment, Aminah was furious at Taufik and before you know it, the very next moment, she was trying to cajole Taufik into matchmaking his sister with his colleague at the factory where he was working at.

Another memorable scene would be when Aminah got all excited at preparing the house for the coming of a potential suitor for Zahara, Johan, played by Norisham Osman. It was hilarious when Aminah stuffed handkerchiefs into Zahara's bosoms to make her look more alluring. Zahara almost fainted at the anxiety of realizing her potential suitor was in fact her old crush at school. Johan, the unsuspecting gentleman had no idea that he had been invited by Taufik for dinner only to be introduced to Zahara, his sister. Johan’s character was meant to be a charming young man who is a seemingly good catch as a prospective husband. The scene where he was left alone with Zahara in the room to chat and get to know each other better could have been better developed to lead the audience to feel as crushed as Zahara towards the end of the play when Johan declared that he was actually already engaged and getting married soon. The climax when Johan dropped the bomb that he was actually engaged did not really hit the correct note due to the flat tone in delivering the line. However, many in the audience definitely agreed that Johan played the role of leading Zahara on very well as I hear people cringing that their hairs were standing when Johan was staring into Zahara’s eyes intently and romancing her through his dance moves.

The audience sympathises with the broken dreams of Aminah to see her only daughter wed, being the only solution she could identify for Zahara to have a better future after she had failed to continue her typewriting lessons. Aminah and Zahara were left to fend for themselves as Taufik went off to be a sailor and chased his dreams, just like his father.

Aside from the storyline, the strength of the play is definitely in the language and delivery of lines. The script is so beautifully worded to make us appreciate Bahasa Melayu. I love the display of customs in the family’s daily routine as it educates members of the audience on the values of a family unit. The set design allows us, the audience to empathise and understand Aminah’s willful desire to break out of her poverty cycle.

I look forward to the next play by Teater Kami! It is a children’s play entitled ‘Buaya Buas’ or ‘Wild Crocodile’, directed by Saiful Amri Ahmad Elahi at Teater Kami Black Box from 26-29 Oct 2016. Check out Teater Kami’s FB page for more info!

Aminah cajoling Taufik to introduce his colleague to Zahara

Zahara crawling out of her comfort zone

Johan teaching Zahara dance moves

Set Design

My Story - Duo

Directed by Ms Atin Amat, who needs no introduction in the professional Malay theatre scene, ‘Gigi oh Gigi’ or ‘Teeth oh Teeth’ is such a pacey hilarious story that it is hard to watch it with a straight face at any point. There was always a funny event being introduced to tickle your funny bone. It also has historical elements such as the various campaigns held by the Singapore government ever since the launch of its first campaign ‘Keep Singapore Clean’ in 1973. Dalifah Shahril, the renowned theatre actress with more than 60 plays under her belt, is easily one of the most engaging storytellers around. 

The story, inspired by a true life event, drags the audience on a journey of chaos when Datin Lynn’s niece, Yani accidentally dispose of her newly-constructed dentures into the toilet bowl. As dentures take a considerable amount of time to be replaced, Datin Lynn racked her brain on alternative ways to solve her problem in the meantime. Her wacky ideas include desperately heading to a costume shop and buying the different types of fake teeth available to try them on. The story ends with Datin Lynn finally getting another set of new dentures after two weeks instead of supposedly a month’s wait. It was an important lesson for Datin Lynn as she realizes the importance of her teeth when she had to literally survive without them in that short period. She had been a heavy smoker and had to go through Gingivectomy, a type of gum treatment due to her poor care of oral hygience.

Although it was a monologue, the obvious transition of characters made it easy for the audience to differentiate between the main character and other secondary characters in the play. There was only one massage chair, a luggage bag and a mobile phone as props but those were enough to transform our imagination as the play progresses.

After a short ten-minute intermission, the play moved on to its second monologue ‘Sayang Musalmah’ or ‘My Dear Musalmah’ performed by Suryana Norddin and directed by Nabilah Moen. It was a stark contrast from the first play as it has a more solemn mood, starting off with the main character, Musalmah in a white telekong reading verses from the Yaseen after her mum’s demise. It is a story of love and forgiveness. A story about life and its final destination: death. As the main character deals with the grief of losing her father, she slowly matured and moved on to mend her broken relationship with her mother. As Musalmah’s relationship with her mother was just improving, she was delivered another blow when it was her mother’s turn to leave her in this world.

Suryana was able to emote convincingly enough and moved the audience to tears as we feel her devastation upon her mother’s demise. There could be a more distinct switch of characters although I can identify the different characters she played. The play has been cleverly directed such that the transition of a character occurs each time as the actress changes position e.g. from sitting to standing or from standing to moving to the chair. At some point, it was predictable when there is going to be a switch to the next character.

Since it is a double-bill of monolouges, I personally feel that it would have been better to have ‘Sayang Musalmah’ first so that the play would end on a ‘high’ with ‘Gigi Oh Gigi’. Both plays were performed in Malay with English surtitles at the Malay Heritage Centre Black Box.