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Page 11
The Cock that laid an egg Dance Theatre for children |
TWO CHILDREN are rounding up the chickens in their village when they discover a stranger among the birds. They capture the chicken, which puts up a struggle. One kid wants the bird for a pet but the other wants to enter it for a cockfight. But another argument overwhelms them: Is this stranger chicken is a hen or a rooster? The kids ask their parents, a fortune teller, even the chicken butcher. But nobody knows the answer. When the cockfight finally takes place, the victorious bird lays an egg! This story from the Philippines is the core around which the co-directors Janet Pillai, Tan Sooi Beng, Liew Kung Yu and Eng Hee Ling conjure up a magical dance drama for children, an innocent audience who are drawn unwittingly into enthusiastic participation - singing, questioning, answering and shouting in three languages, compelled by the music and the dance to takes sides on the dividing riddle - hen or rooster? Janet Pillai and Tan Sooi Beng who since "Red and Gold Shoe" (2001) revealed an amazing knack for children's theatre have again joined hands, assigning to their gifted dancers the critical task of seducing the young audience to noisily quarrel out the answer the seemingly unsolvable problem. Janet Pillai, a lecturer in the Performing Arts Department at University Sains Malaysia, has become a well-known personality in the education of the young. She has been directing since 1979. Her Suara Rimba (five Arts Centre,1994), Rama and Sita: Generasi Baru (Five Arts Centre, 1996), Ne Zha (Five Arts Centre 1999), Red and Gold Shoe ( FAC and Young Theatre Penang, 2001) are particularly well-remembered. She attributes her interest in this field to a diet of comics and cartoons when a child. |
| Tan Sooi Beng, professor of Ethnomusicology at Universti Sains
Malaysia, uses gamelan and wayang kulit, Chinese drums and Indian flute
and violin to give pulse and movement to the show; it was as if they
had been an indispensable part of the scene from the beginning. The sets and costume design by Liew Kung Yu was breathtakingly effective; he almost made us believe the birds were real. The fourth collaborator of this very successful show is the dancer and choreographer Eng Hee Ling whose cockfight displayed a lightness of touch, an arching sense of humour that disarmed the hidden explosives of the question: hen or rooster? The exuberant production was by the Zao Xin Chang Theatre Troupe and the Young Theatre, Penang. The bubbling concoction was highly entertaining.# |
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Image of Penang
Island by Tina Choong
Technical advisor: Tony Ooi And thanks to Robin Choi and K H Koh for their help |
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If you have any photos of old Penang which you would like published please send them to 35 Halaman Batu Maung 11960 Batu Maung Penang and we shall return them to you after publication We have prepared an Index to The Penang File. If you are interested in having a copy please email us at thepenangfileg@yahoo.co.uk giving your name, address as well as your email address or else click on Index ____________________ The Penang File Issue 43 |
| ______ INDEX Point to the article that you want to read, and CLICK Index page Book review The captive mind Chinese words in Malay Food guide Hen or rooster?Letter from Pulau Tikus A people's constitution (2) Poh Choo's wedding (9) The war in the jungle(2) |
| _____________________ The Penang File Issue 43 |