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Eugène Ionesco's Macbett receives the local treatment, replete with politics and paranoia.

AMBITION is a beautiful thing. "I'm a fan of change and striving towards something better. I want to show how beautiful ambition is," shared Kelvin Wong, when asked why he chose to direct Macbett.

Not to be mistaken for the classic Shakespearean play MacBeth, this Actors Studio staging – the first theatrical performance in the newly opened KuAsh Theater in Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI) in Kuala Lumpur – is instead based on one of the later works of Eugène Ionesco, Macbett.

Part parody, part modernisation of that "Scottish play", Macbett tells the tale of how the title character General Macbett (Dinesh Kumar) and his comrade-in-arms General Banco (Oliver Johanan) return heroes after quashing a rebellion.

Like any corrupt politician worth his salt, Archduke Duncan (Cheong Ui Hua) promises the military duo land, datuk-ships and cash – then promptly welshes on the deal.

Betrayed by his lord and seduced by the scheming Lady Duncan, Macbett plots to assassinate the Archduke and crown himself King.

So far pretty similar to MacBeth? The Romanian absurdist goes further into the depravity that comes with power to paint a darker version with more murder, ghosts and fun.

"I'm not equipped to do Shakespeare, so I've settled on Ionesco's parody instead. In fact, it's more of a reflection of our world today," says Wong.

He explains that Macbett can be viewed in two ways: an analysis of the ugliness of politics, or a show of ambition's beauty, even if it becomes tainted by greed or paranoia.

Costume planner Siti Farrah Abdullah reveals that they're staging a more contemporary version of Macbett – based on playwright Tanya Ronder's 2007 adaptation of Ionesco's play originally written in the 1970s.

"Our Macbett is presented as a dream. We give the audience the liberty to use their imagination to decide what era the play is set in," says Siti.

"The danger of calling it a dream is it can be anything and everything. The play is more like how we (the cast) see images from our dream," adds Wong.

"When I'm directing, I see it as a version of my dream, Siti's costumes are from her dream; the play is the sum total of the cast and crew's dreams."

He laughingly adds, "we're getting really artsy-fartsy here, aren't we?"

In terms of costume, this setting allowed Siti to run wild with her costume direction. Archduke Duncan looks like a certain tyrannical German from WWII, Generals Macbett and Banco are dressed as Russian soldiers, and Lady Duncan looks like a geisha!

"I read somewhere that in dreams, things happen in black and white, more monotonous. I've applied this to the characters' costumes and used a lot of black leather, metals and dark materials," explains Siti.

"Call me strange, but I was inspired by Justin Bieber," she says, pausing to burst into laughter.

"No, seriously. I was thinking of those ridiculous harem pants and drop crotch pants he wears, and thinking why anyone would wear such a thing. From there, I got the beginnings of an idea on how to dress the characters."

She says the main challenge was choosing outfits that both suit characters and were practical enough as the actors have to make many quick changes during the play.

"When a play gets boring, the audience's attention will go to the costumes and set. Thus we aim to make the look clean cut so people will focus on the story," says Siti.

Wong concurs, "everything needs to come together to draw you to the characters, thus we decided there's no need to be too elaborate."

Cheah Ui Hua plays Archduke Duncan.

Another goal Wong aimed to meet was to distance the play from Ionesco's fatalist view that people do not have a choice in their actions, and are merely pushed along by fate.

"Having choice is a hopeful thing. I want to make people focus a beautiful eye on the world and not the same old same old cynicism," enthuses Wong.

Through the dream-like performance, he hopes to remind the audiences that they too should have greater dreams than their predecessors, but to also proceed with caution to avoid the fate of the plays' characters.

Macbett will be staged at The Actors Studio @ KuAsh Theatre, TTDI in Kuala Lumpur from Aug 14-18 (8.30pm) and Aug 17-18 (3pm). Tickets are RM35; RM25 for concession. Purchase four tickets and get one free. Book tickets via www.ilassotickets.com or call 03-4047 9000. Contains adult content.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Selasa, 13 Ogos 2013