Out-of-Town Tryout: Cakap Dapur: R&D Stories at DPAC

I’m calling it an “out-of-town tryout” because it sounds unnecessarily American and also it was in Damansara, not KL. I’m assuming Damansara isn’t in KL. Both places are eastward from where I am, and everything sort of blends into one another beyond Subang Alam. Anyway.

Cakap Dapur is a work-in-progress, so I will write less about the text of the show itself and more about what changes might be made. Basically, less direct statements and more meandering blather.

Cakap Dapur is a series of self-contained stories (or vignettes, rather) told by Professor Mohd Anis (played by Chee Sek Thim). The stories, as I found out during the night, were not focused on telling an over-arching story of Malaysia. They were a loose coalition of stories about artistic technique, opinions about some facets of then-contemporary Malaysia, horror stories, racism and something else I’m sure. I didn’t write all the categorisations down, I was caught unawares that this was not a show about Malaysia; we’ll get to that.

The performer needs to be a Malay male actor. Chee did a good job with the text, but that’s not the point. The play itself uses a language and style that only fits Malaysian Malay men. Of course, I have no problems with casting details for works-in-progress, but if/when the final product is produced, the casting should be right. Perhaps several of you (ie. the one still remaining) reading this might balk at the suggestion that race/ethnicity matters in casting. Perhaps they believe that every person is exactly the same. Without delving into the politics of it, I simply say that race/ethnicity has relevance to casting, but its weight depends on the work.

Just watching the show, one can tell that the speech patterns being used belonged to a Malay man: simplistic in manner, somewhat careless. And, once I realised that, I became removed from the show. The idea that a Malaysian ethnic-Chinese could say any of this made no sense to me.

And, speaking of things making no sense to me, I feel I must point out to the arts community: the average Malaysian non-Malay outside of Bangsar has little to no awareness of Malay dance, and they neither know nor care of its details. I say this in such direct terms because so much of the play was about dance and a whole host of artistic subjects that normal people do not know about. The author needs to bear in mind who the intended audience is. If Ms Leow only ever expects the arts community to watch this or any other iteration of the show, then fine. Be esoteric. But, I am not in the arts community, and I, as a big fan of the theatre without any detailed knowledge of it, would tend to expect that creators bear in mind my kind possibly attending performances. if this show is to have an audience outside of the Sunway U arts programme, the creators should think about how in-depth they go into certain subjects.

With regard to the text, serious amounts of editing must be considered. I understand that the idea behind all this is that the stories verbatim by Mohd Anis are the sparks of inspiration, but that is not enough. As they are, each vignette have something to say, sort of. But, it does not become a story. In a non-linear sense, it does not build into a single experience. The raw material must be altered to become a story. Not necessarily a narrative story. Just something that makes sense to put an audience through a continuous hour of.

Overall, it was a fine tryout. There was good substance, and, as expected, work is to be done. However, I do wonder about where the show is going and what the creators actually have in mind for it. I chickened out of asking a question during the Q&A. Had I asked, my question to the playwright would have been: what is the show about?