By Rayyan al-Firdausi
GOMBAK, 15 March 2016: A production house, relatively new to the scene called ‘Silver Spades’, is participating in two separate major events this semester with performance that is so unique that they have never been done before in IIUM.
The two-semester young theatre club had joined Nusantara Theatre Week (NTW) on 7 and 8 March recently and will be collaborating with Notorious Playhouse for IIUM Disability Grand Awareness Campaign (IDGAC) on 7 April.
For NTW, ‘Silver Spades’ will be debuting semi experimental mute theatre titled “Simpang”. Written and directed by linguistic and literature third year student, Aisyah Khaleeda Rosli, 21, Simpang will be her first debut and the first of its kind. It is a commentary on today’s obsession with cyber life.
Actual friends, Muhammad Ashman Shaharir, 21, and Saiful Naim Sofian, 21, where both second year linguistics and literature students, will be playing internet pen pals who don’t know each other in real life and their story will be narrated by Zasfar in the form of poetry.
The play is expected to be performed around thirty minutes in total silence from the main actors.
“In semi experimental theatre, it is a combination of experimental elements like dancing and movements, and non-experimental elements, for our case, poetry,” said Faiz Fahmi bin Musa, 21, a second year English Literature student and President of ‘Silver Spades’.
According to Aisyah Khaleeda, she “would be very happy if this never before seen semi experimental mute theatre,” that marks her first time writing and directing manage to “deliver the message to the audience.”
For IDGAC, the budding Spades and veteran Notorious combine forces to tell a story of disability from able-bodied perspective.
Commenting on the theme of disability and natural point of view, English literature alumni and scriptwriter Farah Adilla Ismail, 28, said, “I don’t know how their lives are and I don’t have friends or family with disability. So, I decided to make a story on disability through the point of view of people like me. I don’t want to do a story that might not do justice.”
The actual plot and casts are not yet set in stone but second year BENL student, Amirul Hakimi Mohammed Nor, 21, from Spades and Islamic Finance and a third year student, Sarah Amalina Azizul Rahman, 22, from Notorious will be directing it. “Right now, the play is about a set of twins that were separated where one of them is disabled,” said Hakimi.
Tickets are expected to start selling a week before the performance dates and it would probably cost less than RM10. Both projects are to be staged in Main Auditorium, IIUM.
NTW is organised by Theatre Club under Centre for International Islamic Culture (CiTRA) and IDGAC is organised by a collaboration of IIUM Disability Services Unit, Office of Deputy Rectors & Student Affairs, Welfare Secretariat and Ibnu Ummi Makhtum Club (I-MaC).***