Last week, I saw a great actress tell a story about a tragic and dramatic
event. And I was bored stiff. Worse, I was saddened. Jo Kukathas is
a wonderful actress. She is a comedian almost without rival and, like
most comic actors, capable of tremendous power as a "dramatic" actress.
Can I therefore eliminate Jo as a reason for my distaste for FROM TABLE
MOUNTAIN TO TELUK INTAN?
FROM TABLE MOUNTAIN TO TELUK INTAN is basically a docu-drama about
a South African woman who, after emigration to Malaysia, is stabbed
and rendered paraplegic. So was I saddened by the subject matter? Yes,
but that doesn't account for my distaste. WHOSE LIFE IS IT ANYWAY? and
NIGHT MOTHER are both plays I admire, and ostensibly much bigger downers:
euthanasia and suicide.
Two story strands wove through the play - the racism of being a Cape
Coloured in apartheid South Africa, and the prejudice towards the "non-person"ness
of the physically-handicapped. Two separate strands which could have
resonated together at some point but never did. In fact, almost nothing
resonated together. And as the evening wore on, I asked myself, "Why
is she telling ME all this? I'm not handicapped and I've never been
to South Africa."
Maybe that doesn't matter. After all, isn't the purpose of art encapsulated
by the phrase Ceritalah!? Tell us a story. In pictures, or music, or
words, or emotions. You have my attention. I've come. Tell me-lah! A
story with a beginning, a middle and an end. A voyage. A voyage of discovery
that we will take together. But telling me about the smells on your
childhood streets isn't drama. It's documentary. It's Creative Writing
for those not bright enough for the Science Stream.
The journey for the character doesn't have to be the same as the journey
for the audience. Chekhov's characters usually don't ever manage to
make their journeys. But the audience does. The characters in WHOSE
LIFE IS IT ANYWAY? and NIGHT MOTHER both undertake journeys. Alia doesn't.
She's standing and feisty at the beginning, and sitting and feisty at
the end. Being stabbed is not a journey, it's a sad event. An inciting
incident. We admire her, and feel sorry for her. But we did from the
beginning.
Two fundamental Playwriting 101 questions need to be asked: WHO is
Alia talking to? And WHY? Which leads, inevitably, to WHO is the playwright
talking to? And WHY? Could Alia have been talking to her physiotherapist,
her psychologist, her yet-unborn grandchild, her dead mother, prisoners
convicted of violence against women, etc.? Then, we'd have a better
idea of WHY. But the reality is much more prosaic: Alia is talking to
middle-class Jo Kukathas theatre-going fans and the reason for the monologue
is so that we can admire her ability to emote. And the accent! So clever-ah?
But just because you CAN do something, that's not a reason to do it.
And this, I think, is the key to my sadness. FROM TABLE MOUNTAIN TO
TELUK INTAN is a series of mostly prosaic events held together by a
great deal of emotion. In the same way as a series of one-liners do
not make a comedy but merely An Evening with Harith Iskandar, similarly
a series of emotional climaxes merely gives an evening of acting exercises.
Most actors do acting exercises, sometimes in public but mostly in private.
Either is fine but it is misleading to label them "plays" anymore than
an aerobics class is a ballet.
It is often a mistake of new playwrights to think that having a "worthy
cause" can replace the fundamentals of good playwriting. Plot and character
are deemed less important or even unnecessary given the "profound truthfulness"
of this "exploration". As a result, the audience gets bombarded with
a series of sentimental custards and finds itself applauding the ability
of the actor to carry off such a "heavy play". Much like patient uncles
and aunts during their kids' piano concert.
What IS the purpose of this kind of theatre? Is it to make me laugh?
Definitely not. Is it to change my opinions? Am I now to feel that stabbing
women is wrong? Am I now to feel that life in a wheelchair is less satisfactory
than being ambulatory? I think I can speak for the rest of the (small)
audience when I say, "I didn't need to be told that".
So? Does all this matter? If you love the theatre, I think it does.
Remember Schweitzer? Went to Africa to do good to the natives and decimated
them by spreading small pox. And now? Kuala Lumpur has a few dozen more
people who think of theatre as "heavy medicine". A sentiment once echoed
by Hemingway, when he said: "Whenever I hear the word 'culture', I reach
for my gun."
I hate to see half a dozen fine women doing so much harm by doing
so much "good". There's a place for actors' aerobics and writers' workshops,
and when you finish them, invite us.
So can I eliminate Jo as a reason for my distaste for FROM TABLE MOUNTAIN
TO TELUK INTAN? Not entirely. After all, she chose to do the play.
So Jo, which do YOU like better? Early Robin Williams or late? Punchy,
hard-hitting, quick-witted, trenchant Williams? Or treacly, schmultzy
HBO, "Patch Adams" Williams? It's your life, Jo. You choose. (But I'll
come and watch you, anyway, because you're a star. More importantly,
OUR star!)
Love,
BESSIE MEI MUJOE
A middle-class ambulatory non-violent theatre-going
fan.
10 October 2000
