Race: A review

RACE, a new play presented by Rather Peculiar Theatre premiered last night, and I was there to watch it. It's a quartet of four new 15-minute plays written by four different playwrights including Ridzwan Othman, Shanon Shah, D'Boy and Kimmy Kiew. Kimmy Kiew and Soefira Jaafar two plays each.

All I have to say is I love it. It's one of the most enjoyable theatre experiences I've had for quite a while. The two humour-driven plays -- "One In A Billion" by Kimmy and "Up & Down, Satu Mini Muzikal" by D'Boy-- which feature the four younger cast members Ledil Putra Alaudin, Firdaus Che Yahya, Sherry Abdullah and Lakshman Ramakrishnan were excellently performed, with heaps of energy and enthusiasm. To the point that they trumped their more experienced counterparts who only just managed to hold the audience interest in the more sombre yet more provocative plays "Once You Pop, You Just Can't Stop" bu Shanon and "Angsa" by Ridzwan. I personally thought "Angsa" was a really interesting piece of writing, using an absurd tragedy involving a Scrabble game at school as the starting point for an exploration of race as a linguistic riddle. It was deceiving in its design. Like a jigsaw puzzle. Good work, Ridzwan!

Overall, though the transitions between the more upbeat plays to the sombre ones can be jarring for some, and the unevenness in the quality of the writing throughout may favour one play over another, I really did enjoy myself. It's not easy to come across plays that are fun and politically aware.

All the plays examine issues of race, identity, and the simmering passive aggressive violence that exists in Malaysian society -- which explains the name of the show, duh! Hopefully, the opening night jitters will settle by the second show. There are only five shows left before it finishes so I urge everyone to get yo bums to KLPAC and support this very nice production. I reckon the last three shows will find the ensemble cast really hitting their stride.