Around Us

The Lighter Side Of Life

When: March 14-16 (8.30pm) & March 17 (3pm)

Where: Pentas 2, Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre, Sentul West, Jalan Strachan, off Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur

Admission: RM38 (adults) and RM28 (students, disabled, TAS card members).

Tel: 03-4047 9000 (KLPaC), 03-2142 2009 (The Actors Studio @ Lot 10) or visit www.klpac.org.



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Simply titled The Lighter Side Of Life, the show is presented by The Actors Studio Seni Teater Rakyat.

Besides Life Sdn Bhd alumni such as Patrick Teoh, Andrew Tan, Shamaine Othman, Ian Chow and Ariff Akhir, there will also be first timers, including Ashraf Zain, Douglas Wong and Lex Laskhman.

For the newbies, the basic concept of telling a personal story is an exciting challenge.

"I'll be sharing my funny experiences in boarding school during Form 4 and 5 when I was transferred to Kelantan where I received the culture shock of my life," said KL-lite Ashraf.

On the other hand, Douglas will tell a story about fortune telling.

"Getting your fortune read is a very Chinese thing to do and I'll be sharing my tale in Cantonese about my experience last year. It was quite funny," said Gombak-born Douglas, who has been steadily working in the Chinese theatre scene.

As part of The Joker Trio, which includes Season Chee and William Yap, he will also be appearing in the upcoming production of Laugh Chinese Style in April.

According to Douglas, the very different nature of Life Sdn Bhd was what got him interested in the show.

"When we act, we are given a role or a character so we feel very secure while acting in a regular play but now we have to be ourselves, standing onstage alone to tell a story and that's scary for me," he said.

Ashraf, who has done a lot of improve with the experimental group AIIA (Artificially Intelligent: Improvholics Anonymous) agreed.

"I'm always in an ensemble onstage so being alone now to share my story in the intimate setting of Life Sdn Bhd is a scary but good experience," he said.

He is part of theatre comedy sketch ensemble Project Disko Baldi and will be coming up with a TV series for the funny show.

"We're currently writing material for 13 episodes of Projek Disko Baldi that will be shot in April. Hopefully it'll be aired in July on 8TV," he said.

Faridah added that Life Sdn Bhd is almost like a stepping stone for those involved to do all sorts of other things.

"It's nice to bring in people from different quarters and I think telling a funny story is not that easy," she said, adding that the audiences of Life Sdn Bhd have always been very warm.

"They love the experience and they're with you all the way, which I find very heart warming," she said.

Lex's past two contributions to the series (abuse and human trafficking) was as a choreographer.

"I'm very excited this time to be telling a story about food, a very Malaysian thing," he said, adding that it's about his experience with a certain foreign food.

For The Lighter Side Of Life, Lex explains that the stories are of ordinary things that people can relate to or have experienced but told from a different perspective.

"It is basically looking at life itself, both real life and Life the show, and the idea of just inspiring each other through the stories," said Lex, who is also currently working as choreographer for the restaging of the award-winning musical Broken Bridges, which will be staged in May.y