Day 105 : Malayalam Drama!

Once upon a time, I used to be an active member of the Malayalam theater scene in Singapore. That was, well, quite long a time ago. In fact, since then, there has not been much activity in the overall Malayalam theater front either. It had pretty much gone into hibernation.

So I was very excited when I realized there's going to be a Malayalam drama event - four short plays over one evening. I gathered my usual "Mallu gang" and four of us went to watch this historic event.

And it was fun!

Firstly, it was so good to see all the familiar faces from my Singapore Malayalee Association days. It used to be my home away from home for many years and I have a ton of friends there still.

Secondly, the plays themselves were well attempted, especially the first one called "Tadaka - the Dravidian Princess" which I enjoyed.

Thirdly, anything and everything that's done together with the "Mallu Gang" is fun, even if that means joking in our mother tongue and cracking up silly for no reason.

All in all, a wonderful evening!

395 more to go.

Day 78 : "Metamorphosis - A World of Puppets"!

Madam's school holidays have started and I was looking at fun stuff for her to do. And at the very last moment, I got tickets for this puppet show called Metamorphosis by Bernd Ogrodnik  from Iceland. I had never watched a live puppet show before and this was only an hour long, so I thought it was perfect for a family outing.

So with much pomp and show, the whole family - myself, the husband, the in-laws and Madam - set out for our first school holiday outing.

It was Madam's first theatre experience of any sort, so she promptly asked for popcorn - because obviously, any dark place where a show is to be held is similar to a cinema and should serve popcorn. After getting over the initial disappointment of being told there will be no popcorn to go along with the entertainment, she settled down to watch the show.

And she was completely mesmerized for the next one hour. Not just her, all of us! It was one of the most amazing shows ever! The creativity, the mastery of the craft and above all, the simplicity of the storytelling was just astounding. With just a few props, a little bit of music that he played himself, and some voice modulation, Ogrodnik was able to weave such beautiful stories. It was amazing to see how much one can do with so little. Plus the guy was so multi-talented - he is a good actor, he could play the harmonica and clarinet, he could do acapella, he could sing, he is obviously a creative story writer, director and exceptional puppeteer and he even makes the puppets himself. Too much! And there was a very humble yet inspiring Q&A with him and his wife as well.

All in all, a really, really good experience. Now am determined to catch more such shows!

422 more to go.