Where's The Frankincense?

“Bila ditanya, mana setangginya? Tepuklah dada, situ tempatnya”, a line from a song in the

Theatre “Mana Setangginya?”.

So I got back from Istana Budaya yesterday. As soon as I got back to my room, I started organizing my stuff in the room and put stuff to where they’re supposed to be, or rather wherever I want them to be. I was welcomed by my new roommate, Azlan. He already had his side of the room organized, so I took all night getting my stuff straight. When I finished, I didn’t have the energy or will to even open up my laptop, so I crashed. That’s why I’m late in posting my “Mana Setangginya” post. So this is it.

The Poster!

The Main Cast!

We arrived at the city of Kuala Lumpur at about 3 something in the afternoon after departing from the Institute in Penang a little later than 10 am. And guess what? We got lost. Yeah, great, I know. There wasn’t a single KLite on the bus on that day, so that made things hard. Then after a few hours of wandering around, the nice ELTC person guided us to where we were to be staying that night, his place. ELTC stands for English Language Training Centre, I just found out. It’s right next to/inside (not sure) Institut Perguruan Bahasa Antarabangsa, IPBA. We arrived at 5.15pm. My first impression on the place was “Wow..”. The place was great. Big and spacious with lots of rooms (5) and 3 bathrooms. There’s also a kitchen area, a dining area, a balcony, and a living room complete with a TV set. Now that’s living. As Ipe said “Patotla budak-budak kat sini pandai-pandai semua..” I just nodded while admiring the place a little more.

The living room area.

Unfortunately no more pictures were caught there because we had to rush out to get dinner before the start of the theatre performance. We ate somewhere I don’t know, but that was the first time I ate Tail Soup, after persuaded by Amirul to give it a go. And it wasn’t bad. Not bad at all. I would love to order it again sometime soon. Again, no pictures. Sorry, the bowl was finished faster than you can say “bone cartilage”.

We arrived at Istana Budaya at a little over 7pm, I think. My first impression of Istana Budaya?

Woooooooaaaaahhh!!!

Just checking to see if we’re at the right place.

A douche posing outside The Cultural Palace.

The fag telling his mom.

Don’t ask him. He knows nothing.

His friend included.

Truly jaw-dropping. And I couldn’t believe that I was going to watch a performance in there. The inside was just as impressive as the outside, if not better. Very clean, very classy. I even felt inferior to the carpeting. We entered the audience chamber at 8.30pm. The performance started at about 9pm.

The stage upon entering.

The start was impressive enough. Dancers coming in to the chant of “Mana Setangginya?” and great live music accompanied it. I realised that that was the first big-budget theatre staging that I’ve seen, and I embraced myself for the best show I’ve ever seen live. The big, well-detailed props, big-name actors (Tony Eusoff, Marlia Musa to name some), great effects, great songs played by a great orchestra gang, good story as well. And there were people flying. Did I mention that yet? No? Yeah, there were people actually FLYING! But none of the main characters flew. Only the “angels” were flying, which were irrelevant to the storyline, but made a heck of an entertaining piece of eye-candy. Oh, yeah, cameras weren’t allowed to snap any pictures, and if some did try to get a sneaky one, a laser pointer shone by the ushers there quickly scare the flicker-wrong-doers. If that didn’t work, they went up straight to the SLR-crazy people and threatened to confiscate the RM2000 beauties from their hands if they didn’t cease their piracy acts. Cool.

The play really criticized the community a lot, how they are too easy influenced by material things and lose sight of what’s really important in life, and afterlife. It was a joy ridiculing the “bad” society and seeing them get their just desserts. I just hope everyone who left Istana Budaya that evening came out a changed person and try to improve themselves as people.

I think that’s all for now. I really need to get some shut-eye. Classes have started and, boy, it sure feels different, this 3^rd semester. I’ll write about it in another post-lah­ I think.

Until then, keep smiling!