The "Bloody" Macbeth

“To-morrow, to-morrow, and to-morrow…” Macbeth’s speech after her wife committed suicide because of feeling very guilty. Well this film would be categorised as 18PL if it is to be rated in any cinema in Malaysia. It was just too violent to be watched in Malaysia and I guessed FINAS would never allow that to happen.

The first scene itself had foreshadowed what was going to happen next. The burial of the hand by the witches symbolised how the main character in the story would make a lot of sinful acts by using his hands. This was definitely true as Macbeth had been very sinful killing his own King and also his best friend.

As I watched the film, I just could not stand the scenes where brutal acts are shown especially when Macduff chopped Macbeth’s head off. It was just so terrible. I felt all those things were so barbaric and civilised people should not do such vicious acts.

The other thing about the movie Macbeth that I found interesting was that the portrayal of Lady Macbeth as a wife who had a very great influence upon her husband. Although in the end she become crazy and then committed suicide, I would consider her as someone who was brave and full of courage and knew what she really want in her life.

Even though I was not doing Macbeth, the opportunity of watching the film was rewarding. At least I had a feeling that Shakespearean plays can be understood although it may take some time to do so.

A Streetcar Named Desire: A Tragedy

This play is indeed a tragedy. I sympathized with Blanche the most; the tragic hero in this play. What makes her the tragic hero though? Well, the answer is obvious. She has a tragic flaw of not being able to differentiate fantasy from reality and thus destroys her own life.

Although the blame should not be totally put on her, I think that she is mentally and physically fragile and should be protected. After all the misfortunes that she has gone to in her life, I think Stella should take care of her sister and not sending her away to the asylum. In this case, Stella is being blind to trust Stanley and not to trust her own sister. She might be realistic when she thinks that she depends on Stanley financially, physically, and sexually, but she must at least be aware of her sister sudden changes to become totally insane after she has been raped.

In this play also, I hate Stanley because he acts like a beast although I can’t deny the fact that in the end of the play he shows what a good father and husband he is. His action of raping Blanche is totally bestial and shows how uncivilized he is. He takes advantage on Blanche’s fragility and her present state of mind.

Overall, I find that this play is easy to read but I do not really like the story as it is not of my interest.

Meeting Anike and the Writer

The last play to learn and read. Finally… The semester has come to an end. Anike a play by Wong Phui Nam and I was lucky to meet the playwright in person on 3rd of April 2006. Although this play is a parallel to Antigone by Sophocles, the setting of the play Anike is more local to the Malaysian readers.

In describing Anike, the playwright considered it as a dramatic poem where people can enjoy reading it as a poem instead of staging the play. I found this quite interesting and different as I never thought that there was such thing as dramatic poem. I agreed with him though, as his way of presenting this play in words looked more like poetry than a play. As quoted from him "poetry is meant to be read".

The other thing about this play that is quite different from Antigone is that, the description of the rotting corpse really made me fell sick. When asked about this, Wong Phui Nam said that he wanted the readers to see how cruel the Raja is in the story that he has the gut to do such a cruel thing to other people.

Lastly, the play Anike is a good play to read and the message that the playwright tries to bring about is just so relevant to the current issues that have happened in any countries around the world lately. I'm really looking forward to watch the staging of this play as it's going to be brought over to UPM.