Review: Thunderstorm
Melodrama done right is so satisfying.
I finally caught a show in pentas 1 of the KLPAC. Finally, no dinky blackbox for me. Of course, I went for the cheap seats. But the best possible ones, that is: as close to the centre as possible, and lowish down but not too low that the actors can see you past the lights.
The show was Thunderstorm. I personally liked the show. I was nervous going in because I thought the show might have been in Mandarin which I don’t understand and subtitles can only go so far. Thankfully it was in Cantonese and Northern Hokkien, which I do speak sort of, and all was well (the subtitles helped with the 10% of the show during which I was struggling)
The translation I thought were good. They Malaysian-ised it but the show was still very larger-than-life (as opposed to countless other “Malaysian-ised” shows which make them ‘relatable’ ie. boring and cloying). The use of Hokkien and Cantonese to reveal class distinction was very nice. You instantly understand a great deal just from the dialect they use. There was some incredibly awkward Chinaman Malay dialogue which I would remove though. Just made everything funny or, worse, relatable.
The performances were great too. The cast worked well together. I liked the two mother characters. They had the best material which obviously worked well for them. And the performance of both actresses carried it through. There’s nothing like women (legitimately) on the verge of hysteria to sell a story.
The ending was a little abrupt. I found after the show that the story has been truncated to two acts from its original four acts plus prologue and epilogue. Now, I usually love complete story-telling, but this version was already at two-and-a-half hours with the edits. So, you do what you have to do and snip away.
As for the story, it’s about family, betrayal, affairs, legitimacy of heirs. Standard stuff really. But really well done. So that’s a choice you make before going in. If you can’t stand that sort of melodrama, don’t do it. But, if you love exploring family dynamics (and boy, do I), this one’s for you.
All in all, great show. I shall be pleased to see other versions of it. And hopefully run longer next time, so more people can see it.
Spoilers, people.
As per usual, no review is complete without some house matters. I was sat right in front of a group of young’uns who clearly thought that because they knew the performers on stage and also perhaps being artsy student types themselves, that they could then react and behave exactly as they pleased.
Please, shouting and whooping and whispering loudly during performances is disrespectful to the performers who will find you a pointless distraction. But also to the paying audience members around you who are actually intent on absorbing the show.
Malaysian Theatre Critic 