This writing blogs has helped me a lot in trying to express my thoughts and feelings on the plays that I have read and watched. After writing these blogs and reading my friends’blogs, I have come to realized that blogs are important in education, to have further understanding and having to know other people’s opinion.

Since this is the last blog in this session that I will be writing, I would like to thank Dr Edwin for giving me this opportunity to write this blogs. I have enjoyed doing this blog and I hope that Dr Edwin will never stop doing this with other students.

Pygmallion

A short and interesting play. This play reminds me of Pretty Women. I love watching people who changes from an ugly frog, to a charming prince. I love Pygmallion and I love the movie too. From this play, I found out that we change in the appearance and in our heart if we want to. We might come from a very tiny town and working class, but we can always change if we want to. Eliza, a flower girl, who cannot seem to even speak the right way, has succeeded to become a perfect lady after being with Higgins for 6 months. Higgins, himself is not a gentleman and it is so obvious that Eliza was not being trained by Higgins alone, to be a lady.
Mrs Pearce, in the play, is a dynamic character who chooses to support Eliza after being bullied by Higgins. Higgins is a bully who only thinks about himself and his own success. Mrs Pearce has acted as a mother to Higgins in this play in case of reminding Higgins to be polite and in good manners.

Gold rain and hailstone.

It was a good and comedy play.
The play was quite impressive as there are only two persons acting on the stage.
The feeling of being in KLPAC is also quite interesting.
I love the environment there, filled with art works, abstract art works which are very impressive.
Gold rain and hail stone, even though i couldn't really connect the play to my own experience, I have heard of those stories before. Their free lifestyle, going against the religion, being a homosexual, is something that Islam cannot accept.
The play does give me a clear picture of how the people in the 80's has been exposed to the West in so many ways, their behaviour and their social lives.
All that I can say is, keep our culture, keep to our religion and still move on with the development

A Street Car Named Desire.

A Street Car Named Desire is a good play to look at portrayal of characters. Portrayal of a character can be seen in different kind of ways In A Street Car Named Desire, Tennessee Williams has been using the portrayal of characters through actions, speech and narration. Blanche and Stanley are contrasting with each other and these are shown clearly through the play.
Stanley Kowalski, is described his characterization by the narration in page 2, Stanley is described as someone who is 28 or 30 years old, who dresses in the normal way, a working class pupil would wear. He also described as someone who is rough. Through his speech, we could see that he cannot differentiate between real things and fake things. This could be seen in pages 22 and 23, when he was busy looking and touching Blanche’s things. He cannot even differentiate between a rhinestone and diamonds.Tennessee Williams also shows Stanley’s blindness about beauty and the evidence is on page 25.We could also see that Stanley uses improper English, not like Blanche uses. Through his actions, we could see that he is someone who is impatient. This could be seen in page 27, when he rips off the ribbon and starts to examine Blanche’s letters. Stanley is someone who is aggressive and rough. This could be seen through his action in page 41, when he hit Stella.Blanche thinks that Stanley is not a gentleman and he is not meant for Stella as Stella and Blanche are bred to be ladies and are meant to be with gentlemen.
Blanche in page 3, is described through the narrator:
Blanche is shown as someone who dresses fancily, like someone from middle class who does not match with the surrounding of working class people. From the narration, we found out that she is 5 years older than Stella. She is also being described as a moth. Moth is an insect that flies at night and is attracted to light. It is ironic if we compare it with the sentence before it, which is, ‘her delicate beauty must avoid a strong light’. Tennessee Williams is trying to show something that foreshadows Blanche’s life.
Through Blanche’s action, we could see that Blanche is an alcoholic. This could be seen in page 6. Blanche’s character could also be seen through speech. In page 8, in Stella speech, we could see that Blanche has been domineering throughout her life by looking at her speech. Blanche insists on looking at Stella’s figure even though Stella has been refusing for a few times. From this, we could also see that Blanche is someone who is beauty concern and a little bossy. These traits could also be shown based from her line, in the same page;
‘You messy child, you, you’ve spilt something on that pretty white lace collar! About your hair- you ought to have it cut in a feather bob with your dainty features.’
Through her speech, the way she speaks, is very different from the way the working class people speak. For example, the different style of speaking between Eunice and Blanche, in page 6, when Eunice did not get the message that Blanche wants to be left alone. Even their slang is different. Blanche uses proper English while Eunice uses the working class English.A Street Car Named Desire is a good play in order to examine the portrayal of characters. Stanley and Blanche are two different people. Stanley is the new generation who has moved on with a new type of life while Blanche is someone who is still trying to stick to her old Aristocrats, being a lady even though she does not act like one. Blanche is someone who is mixed up and she is mentally unhealthy

First…

The first play that I had watched was 30 days in September. The play is very interesting and after watching that play, my perspectives towards play, has changed totally. At first, I thought that watching play is only for the old and rich people.
I really thought that plays would be very boring and only artistic people would be crazy to go and watch for them. Now, my perspective is, plays are interesting and I should watch plays even though movies have a much better sound system. The play does give impact to me as I can relate it to the people around me.
I had once met a friend who was molested by her own family member and this has given a bad impact towards her. As a conclusion, I love plays and plays are about real life situations that is being brought on stage.

Antigone vs Anike

Antigone and Anike is almost the same story. I prefer Antigone to Anike because the challenge of the language makes me feel I want to read more and finish the play as soon as possible and since I’ve already read Antigone, I wasn’t as eager as to read Antigone to Anike. Anike, being set in Malaya, is something that could be seen very eerie.The description of the play is very gory and the things that make Anike is different frm Anike is their characters’ names and the usage of the words. Other than that, they are almost the same. The language in Anike is easier, yet, after reading Antigone, I got bored while reading Anike. The setting is clearly been set up in Malaya as we can hear the sound of our traditional instrument and the usage of Malay words, such as taugeh and nenek moyang. The environment of this play is quite effective in order to differentiate Anike and Antigone.Wong Phui Nam, has done a good job on transferring Sophocles’ work into his own work, but for me, what is the purpose of rewriting the same thing. Couldn’t he write on something else? Whatever it is, Dr Edwin has done a good job on giving us this opportunity to study both plays and differentiate these plays.

There are seven things that could make a play, a good play
1) it should satisfy the intellect
so, that it will not be too hard to be understood and to be digested by the reader...
2)must have proper organization
so that we can see the pattern of and the development of the play..so that we could know when it starts and when the play ends.
3)must have ideational content
-so that we could know what the play is all about with reading it
4)deal with human experiences
-if it deals about the aliens, we cannot relate it because we have never even seen one
5)economy in term of time
-so that we won't be bored to death if the play is too long
6)novelty
-it should be something new or a new discovery about the play so that people would love to see the new idea instead of watching the same old thing again.
7)impacts
-so that it will make you think rather than just going home blankly after watching the play.
As a conclusion, a play will be the best play ever if it compliments all of the 7 criterias above.

King Lear...
It is a very hard play,for me.
I've tried to read it and yet it is very confusing.
After reading the first scene, i was left with more question marks than understanding.

Now, we are still having this lecture for Antigone. I found that Antigone is a very strong woman but she was not supposed to be born at that time, just like Hang Jebat should not be born at his time as people at that time are very loyal to their King no matter what.It sounds stupid for me to follow the King's rules as he is not the one who create us. he has no right to control us in every ways. I found this interesting history of how Tiresias got his prophecy, and i really think that it is very funny.
Tiresias was the son of Everes and the nymph Chariclo; he was a blind prophet, the most famous soothsayer of ancient Greece.
The most famous account of the origin of his blindness and his prophetic talent is as follows. When Tiresias was walking in the woods one day, he came upon two great serpents copulating; he struck them with his staff, and was thereupon transformed into a woman. Seven years later, she/he passed by the same place and came upon the same two serpents copulating; she/he struck them again with the staff and was turned back into a man. Some time later, Zeus and Hera were arguing over who had more pleasure in sex, the man or the woman: Zeus said it was the woman, while Hera claimed men got more pleasure from the act. To settle the argument, they consulted Tiresias, since he had experienced life as both sexes, and Tiresias sided with Zeus. In her anger, Hera struck Tiresias blind. Since Zeus could not undo the act of another deity, he gave Tiresias the gift of prophecy in compensation.
Another account says that Tiresias accidentally saw Athena naked, and she covered his eyes with her hands, thus rendering him blind. When Tiresias' mother Chariclo asked Athena to restore her son's sight, the goddess could not undo her own action but gave him the gift of prophecy as compensation.
There are many tales about individual prophecies of Tiresias: he predicted the manner of Narcissus' death; he tried to warn Oedipus of the rashness of that king's inquiries about his parents; he predicted that the sacrifice of Menoeceus, son of Creon, would permit the forces of Eteocles to repulse the army of the Seven Against Thebes. Tiresias eventually died from drinking from the spring Tilphussa, but even after death his shade was able to offer valuable prophecy to the hero Odysseus.

After having a few lectures with Dr. Edwin, I have gained new knowledge about theatre. At first, I thought that theatre is just the stage where people are talking about boring stuff. And after attending the lectures, then only I found out that play, theatre and drama are 3 different things!