KUALA LUMPUR: The Actors Studio (TAS) and the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPAC) have an exciting string of 50 productions lined up for 2022 as things pick up despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Currently running at Pentas 2 of KLPAC till Sunday (Jan 16) is the musical showcase, Men On Women: Torch Songs Reinterpreted, directed by Ian Chow, Mark Beau de Silva and Zhafir Muzani.
With Mak Chi Hoe as music director and pianist, the show will feature sentimental love songs by the likes of Beyonce, Rihanna, Adele, Jaclyn Victor and Aina Abdul, along with tunes from Les Miserables and Cabaret, performed by an all-male line-up of singers.
Staged predominantly in English with some Malay and Mandarin, the concert will also feature stories from the singers Dai, Dennis Lee and Joel Wong.
Next in line this weekend will be the premiere screening of a theatre film Dead Water by the Hermana Collective, KLPAC and TAS Seni Teater Rakyat.
The multidisciplinary collaboration features Chloe Tan (dance artist), Ho Lee Ching (theatre artist), Tung Jit Yang (theatre artist), local indie band Francoe, Ravin Puspalingam (videographer) and Yusman Mokhtar (art director).
"Dead Water is inspired by our personal struggles that have affected us deeply and repeatedly. We felt like we were going through the daily motions of life without ever being present.
"At times, it felt as though we were alive, but dead inside, hence the title. We want to explore what this state can do to us humans, what we can and cannot do in this state, and what comes after this state," said Tan and Ho in a recent statement.
Rehearsed online and filmed last year over 87 hours with mostly 12-hour days on the lawn of KLPAC, this stunning new devised theatre explores the sense of disconnect between the mind, body, and the external world through music, story, movement, set and props.
The unique theatre film will be screened in-person at indicine in KLPAC tomorrow and on Sunday on with a post-show Q&A session, as well as virtually via CloudTheatre (www.cloudtheatre.com) from Jan 20 to 23. Both shows are supported by Cendana, MyCreative Ventures and Penjana.
This month will also see the staging of Inner Tthoughts, a Mandarin poetry and song performance directed by Joe Hasham on Jan 20 to 23, the Malaysian Jazz Piano Festival team's Malaysian Real Book Launch and Concerts (Jan 21 to 23) and Disko Senyap (Jan 29), an electronic gig inspired by the recent trend of "silent disco" where audiences tune into a perfect aural experience via wireless headphones.
Registration for Dead Water's in-person screening at KLPAC can be done via https://linktr.ee/deadwater, whereas tickets for all other shows can be purchased via https://cloudtix.co/ (no phone and over-the-counter sales). For enquiries, call 03-4047 9000 or WhatsApp +6018-227 7212.
For the latest Covid-19 SOP guide, go to http://bit.ly/klpac_covid19_updates.
Each ticket sold goes towards keeping KLPAC and TAS afloat. The public can also make a donation via https://www.klpac.org/donations/.
