A theatre PREVIEW: Going North…a tale of the Emergency

Aku pergi first reading utk play nih, dan masa tuh pelakon pon macam tak kompom sapa yg akan bakon sapa yg tidak. Aku tahu pasal Dato’ Faridah nak buat play nih dah lama, she said that for February dia nak buat a play by Syed Alwi. Masa tuh aku cam, sapa Syed Alwi nih. Serious aku tak kenal please. Aku cam buat2 tahu jer lah, until aku datang for the first reading. Masa tuh ada Fahmi Fadzil, Ras Alita Radzi, Faridah, Ghaz,Ari Ratos. Michael and Roshan (worked with them masa Julius Ceasar) Gavin, Zaibo and this one old man. Old man nih lah Syed Alwi. Dialah yg bertanggung jawab buat semua orang happy lepas tgk Alang Rentak Seribu (he wrote it and direct sekali kalau tak silap) And aku actually ckp kat kawan aku yg im doing a play by Syed Alwi and kawan aku straight ckp, owh..i miss his acting especially as the minister dalam Anna and the King…aku cam WOW! Ok lepas tuh baru lah aku tahu sapa Dato’ Syed Alwi nih. Dia nak dah tulis play sejak umur dia belasan lagik. Dan Going North nih merupakan antara early work dia. Dia juga merupakan one of National Artist. Dia originally tulis citer nih in English masa umur dia 18 kot. Dia inspired of a story mengenai sorang student U nih yg berlagak gila ngan pakcik kat railway station. Student nih ingat pakcik nih kampong gila lah kan. Last masa student nih go the next stop dia nampak poster muka pakcik nih, dan pakcik nih merupakan top scholar yg berjaya gila lah. Malu kan kawan2? Tapi masa Syed nak stage kat Malaysia dulu, he had to translate the script jadik bahasa melayu. So utk staging kat KLPac nih, ia merupakan first time Dato’ Faridah Merican nak stage play nih dalam original language it was written. So….im soooo excited. Play nih adalah part of rangkaian Malaysian Stories yg faridah nak buat throughout the year. Citer nih mengenai sorang student U masa tanah melayu di takutkan dengan kewujudan komunis yg forever nak membunuh. So student nih on the way nak balik ke kampong. Masa kat station tuh dia jumpa sorang pakcik tua yg sangat misteri, sebab pakcik nih cam sekejap ada sekejap tader…eh cam sejenis biskut tuh plak (cliché nya biskut nih) jadik lepas tuh dia jumpa plak ngan sorang pompuan nih dan character pompuan nih plak berkait2 ngan benda yg pakcik misteri tuh cakapkan. Ok aku tanak ckp banyak pasal cerita dia sebab play nih full of suprises, so tanak spoilkan apa2 yg tak patut. Apa yang aku nak ckp kat sini ialah, masa aku went for their full run rehearsal (that was the second time I came after the very first reading) aku ckp kat Faridah and Syed ‘ I love the play when I listened to the first reading, now I like it even more’. Kenapa aku ckp camnih, sebab aku suka pace dia especially bila pakcik tua tuh datang dan banyak psychological game berlaku. Dan banyak scene2 yang membuat aku smile dan tersentuh. Direction utk play nih mmg first class and acting sangat bagus especially Fahmi Fadzil yg go with the character very well. Going North opens on the 9th of February at pentas 2, KLPac. So aku harap korang semua datang lah beramai2 tgk play nih. A good written play by Dato’ Syed Alwi and nicely directed by Dato’ Faridah Merican and well acted by Fahmi Fadzil, Zaibo, Ras Alita Radzi, Ari Ratos, Ghaz Abu Bakar and Michael Chen. Joe Hasham as the artistic director banyak membantu dari dalam pembentukan play nih. And last but not least Production design by Arica Chia yang lagik cun darik certain2 period movie kat Malaysia (honestly sorry) klik sini utk info2 lain cam tiket and contacts.

Ps/ aku sangat suka satu part bila Ras Alita marah kat Fahmi dan dia tampar kerusi kat railway station tuh. Suka sangat….

Trivia: Ini merupakan first play Ghaz Abu Bakar yg merupakan seorang lecturer di MMU dan juga pengarah music video Anuar Zain, Dayang, Vince dan banyak agiks.

Isma Yusoof is now cracking his head, thinking of how he can put all Actorlympians in one poster.