REALITY talent shows and terrorism dominate the headlines and our conversations these days. Theatre actor and director Syahrul Fithri Musa has creatively combined both in his latest theatre production, 1 Plastik Hitam.
The 75-minute performance will be staged at Stor Teater Dewan Bahasa Pustaka, starting tomorrow to Dec 11. It stars Karl Shafek, Ameera Ramli, Fasyli Fadzly, Anas Ridzauan and Fazleena Hishamuddin.
The story takes place in a park where a woman in a veil asks a secondary schoolgirl to look after a black plastic bag while she goes home to pick up something she has forgotten to take with her.
The schoolgirl and others in the park become curious about the black plastic bag. Some believe the woman in the veil could be a suicide bomber and there is a bomb ticking in the black plastic bag.
Others speculate that the woman could be an Arab and since all Arabs are rich, believe the black bag could contain money. One even imagines the black bag is full of drugs.
At the end of the play, director Syahrul will then come forward to encourage the audience to vote for their favourite actors. The results will be tabulated and the actor with the lowest number of the votes will be kicked out from the production.
But that doesn’t mean that actor will not appear in the play the following night!
What Syahrul is trying to do is to break out from the norm. While most theatre productions require their audiences to switch off their handphones, here Syahrul is asking them to keep their handphones on and use them to vote for their favourite actors.
“I want an interactive audience,” explains Syahrul. “I want my audience to have some say in my play.”
He goes even further to include a reality talent show concept into the play to add some humour. There will even be some songs.
Syahrul says: “The content of my play is very serious. If you present something serious in very serious manner, then it will be boring.”
He explains that as his production deals with people’s perception, “we always like to speculate the worst case scenario of things we can’t see”.
This lecturer for the Film, Theatre and Animation Faculty at UiTM first started his career as a theatre actor. To date, he has acted in 20 productions and directed eight. He was also an assistant director for two films, Wayang and Senario Asam Garam.
Recently, he made his first short film, Epal Hijau Di Luar Pagar. The 26-minute film centres on a 10-year-old Malay boy who is a goatherd. One night, he enters the temple of a Chinese graveyard. He is so hungry that he takes a green apple from the offerings to the Chinese deity, promising to return it later.
The rest of the film centres on his journey to replace the green apple he took from Chinese deity. The short film received many positive feedback.
The person who instilled the love of films in him was his father, a handicraft maker.
“My dad loves watching films,” he says. “He will always give his opinions on the films he had watched and he would encourage his children to do the same. I believe that is where my love for films began.”
Syahrul’s ultimate dream is to make films that deal with humanity. “I wanted to sharpen my skills and build my confidence before I sit behind the camera as a filmmaker ,” he says.
“That is the reason I got involved in theatre. Now I think I am ready to direct my first feature film.”
Six years ago, he had a script which centres on a young boy from a small village who idolised singer Mawi and who would do everything in his power to go the big city to meet his idol.
However, Syahrul has yet to get a producer to finance the film.
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