Little Violet and Big Rhino

Yesterday I went to another play, Little Violet and the Angel (LVATA) written by Philip Osment at the Actors Studio, Bangsar Shopping Centre, Kuala Lumpur. As advertised, it is really meant for children age six and above. As I entered the studio, the seats were full of children especially the "mat salleh". The play is about a baby being left in front of a couple's house by a woman one winter day. Though the baby was very welcome by the husband, unfortunately the wife does not share the same enthusiasm of taking care of the baby as their own. Throughout the play, the eagerness of the children audience was clearly visible as they laugh, "ooos" and "aaas". Surprisingly they did not make much noise but merely absorbed into the world of the actors and actresses on stage.

After watching Rhinoceros (R), I found this one is very slow in action, very much suitable for the targeted audience. The languages of both plays are entirely different in which LVATA is really comprehensible even without knowing the synopsis but for R the scripting was more complicated. I recalled the moment when the logician of R was debating about the paws of cats and the horns of rhinoceros as I sat listening to Little Violet debating with her adopted father with just a one word question, "why". A same debating situation but yet a different usage of languages entirely because in R it is between very matured adults while in LVATA, a little girl and an adult.

I have never interest myself into going to a theatre though I remembered very well Dr Rosli's and Dr Edwin's encouragement of going into at least one. After experiencing viewing two plays in two different theatres within one week, I should have taken Dr Rosli's and Dr Edwin's encouragement seriously before. I found out being physically there sitting in a theatre, watching the actors and actresses live on stage is totally a different experience. Reading a text and watching the characters in the text alive is entirely, well, very pleasing indeed, silently communicating with the performers on stage as eyes meet eyes. As I said last week, I am looking forward to view Carmen this weekend but not only Carmen but also Hannah and Hanna and Sound of the Music, to name a few that I am falling in love with. I am really hopefully hoping after these experiences, I will be able to write the position paper as well as the research paper in clearer and better understanding than what I did before.