Get your theatre kicks
The start of the year is slowly heating up with a selection of unconventional theatre shows playing in the Klang Valley. The sight of newcomer theatre groups and experimental outfits mixing it up with the likes of established names is also a healthy sign. Here are three edgy theatre shows to catch.
Space Age: The Phantom Power (Concert Version) (Space, Toccata, Petaling Jaya), Feb 3-4, FB: Space, Toccata.
The “concert” version is upon us! Lose yourself in the wonders of space, music, light and dreams in this contemporary classical performance featuring the French horn, piano, viola, flute and theremin. Created and composed by Ng Chor Guan, Space Age taps into the yearning for the unknown, and the mystery and romance of space travel. It premiered in 2010 and has been touring several countries since then, including Taiwan last year and South Korea in 2016. This fundraiser performance, a concert version of the show, will be staged at Toccata’s studio, prior to its staging at ATYA Festival in Japan in February.
Layang by Main Wayang (KongsiKL, Gudang Yee Seng, Jalan Klang Lama, Kuala Lumpur), Feb 10-11, FB: Main Wayang.
Performing arts collective Main Wayang, which includes digital media artist Fairuz Sulaiman, presents its latest multimedia theatre performance in a KL warehouse, drawing on multidisciplinary theatrical elements to explore the nature of migration, displacement and isolation. Layang combines technology, movement and motion of the human body in its attempt to communicate stories and contemporary issues affecting the human condition. It is a non-ticketed performance. The show is a crowd-funding project.
Version 2020 – The Complete Futures Of Malaysia Chapter 3 (Kotak, Five Arts Centre, TTDI, Kuala Lumpur, March 15-18, FB: Five Arts Centre.
It was a time brimming with optimism when Wawasan 2020 was launched in 1991 to transform Malaysia into a high-income nation-state by 2020. In 2017, a generation later, Transformasi Nasional 2050 was announced. Caught between these visions and futures, Version 2020 by Five Arts Centre investigates the act of national “visioning” against the imaginations and experiences of the personal. This performance premiered in October last year at Festival Spielart in Munich, Germany. This homecoming show is bound to attract an enthusiastic crowd.