17-05-2025
Weekend for the arts: Live Fact turns 10, 'Twelfth Night' at KLPac
CONCERT: LIVE FACT 'CAN'T BELIEVE IT ... WE ARE 10!'
Venue: Live Fact, The Strand, Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya
Date: May 17, 8pm
Independent venue Live Fact is turning 10 this year – and with it comes a rare chance to not only celebrate a vital space for music on the fringes, but to reflect on what it means to belong to a community of curious ears and open minds. The 'Can't Believe It ... We Are 10!' anniversary series kicks off this Saturday with a line-up that leans fully into Live Fact's left-field leanings: expect a heady start from ANGQASA, Sesitikus and Buddha Beat – acts whose sonic explorations move between experimental noise, ambient textures, and genre-melting fusion.
It's also a chance to catch Penang's Buddha Beat in an intimate setting before it takes the stage at the Rainforest World Music Festival 2025 in Sarawak next month. Blending bamboo flute melodies with electronica and psychedelic twists, its sound takes on a different kind of magic at close range – immersive, hypnotic, and deeply transportive.
Over the past decade, Live Fact has been more than just a venue – it has been a refuge for those drawn to the margins of sound and sensibility. It's the kind of place where you come to watch a gig and end up staying for a conversation, a chance encounter, or the slow dawning realisation that you're not alone in the way you listen to the world.
The anniversary series continues with four more shows, spotlighting a diverse range of acts across post rock, electronica, singer-songwriter and ambient pop genres.
More info here.
A view of the 'Oceans That Speak' exhibition at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: The Star/Izzrafiq Alias
EXHIBITION TALK: 'THE MALAY WORLD AND THE SEA'
Venue: Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur
Date: May 17, 10am
In conjunction with the Oceans That Speak exhibition, the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia will host a (free admission) talk by Dr Sumit Mandal titled The Malay World And The Sea.
A trans-regional historian and Muhammad Alagil Chair in Arabia Asia Studies, Sumit will explore how maritime routes once connected the Malay world – spanning present-day Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Brunei – to distant regions across the Indian Ocean through the movement of people, goods, and ideas.
The talk highlights how this rich seafaring past shaped the region's cultural landscape, in contrast to the land-focused outlook of today's nation-states, using a 19th-century Malay travel narrative as a key point of reference.
The Oceans That Speak exhibition is ticketed.
More info here.
Lim Soon Heng (far left), KLSP's executive director, and the cast of the theatre production of 'Twelfth Night' at KLPac. Photo: Lim Soon Heng
THEATRE: 'SHAKESPEARE DEMYSTIFIED: TWELFTH NIGHT'
Venue: Pentas 2, KLPac
Date: May 17
The Actors Studio and KL Shakespeare Players (KLSP) are staging another laugh-out-loud production in the celebrated "Shakespeare Demystified" series. This time, audiences can slide into Twelfth Night, a comedy with disguises, deception, and duplicity all in the name of ... love?
Only limited Saturday tickets are available (be quick to grab them), with Sunday's matinee performance sold out.
This song-filled performance (at 100-minutes) condenses the original three-hour play while retaining the most iconic scenes in Shakespeare's original text, accompanied by narration in contemporary English that provides crucial context and highlighting the play's key themes.
Since 2011, the "Shakespeare Demystified" format has proven to be an engaging and accessible introduction to the Bard's works for youths and general audiences alike. With a cast of only seven actors dynamically performing close to 15 roles, the show embraces creative storytelling with simple yet effective sets and props, allowing the language and humour of Twelfth Night to take centre stage.
More info here.
Sunda Shelves will host an Orang Asli traditional craft market on May 17, featuring indigenous artisans from the Temiar community of Gerik, Perak. Photo: Tropical Rainforest Conservation & Research Centre
BOOKSHOP EVENT: TEMIAR INDIGENOUS CRAFT POP-UP
Venue: Sunda Shelves, Petaling Jaya
Date: May 17, 11am-3pm
The book talk on Sen'oi Serog, a storybook by the Tropical Rainforest Conservation & Research Centre (TRCRC), is fully booked - but visitors can still experience Temiar culture through a craft market earlier in the day at Sunda Shelves.
Featuring handmade items by Temiar indigenous artisans, the pop-up market offers a glimpse into the forest knowledge and traditions explored in the book, which centres on the 'Bering' fruiting season and is a collaboration between TRCRC and five Temiar and Jahai team members from Hulu Perak's Air Banun resettlement.
The craft market, featuring the Temiar community from Gerik, Perak, is supported by proceeds from Sen'oi Serog book sales, which help sustain the community's efforts to preserve the cultural and ecological heritage rooted in Malaysia's tropical rainforest. You can do your part by supporting the craft market - and picking up a copy of the book along the way.
More info here.
An artwork from Lai titled 'Dream Chasing Soul', which is showing at his 'Ethereal Echoes' exhibition in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: Lai Loong Sung
EXHIBITION: LAI LOONG SUNG'S 'ETHEREAL ECHOES'
Venue: Wisma Kebudayaan Soka Gakkai Malaysia, Jalan Bukit Bintang, KL
Date: ends June 8
Ethereal Echoes: Sketches And Recent Works, an evocative solo exhibition that traces the four-decade artistic journey of Selangor-born veteran artist Lai Loong Sung has taken over the Soka Gakkai Malaysia (SGM) art gallery space.
It offers the public a rare opportunity to engage with over 80 deeply reflective works — including manuscripts, oil paintings, and ink pieces — created by Lai between 1986 and 2024.
Rooted in both philosophical insight and personal revelation, Ethereal Echoes draws inspiration from the ancient Chinese text Zhuangzi, where 'Tianlai' (Heavenly Sound) refers to the 'unspoken word' — the soundless sound that echoes from the universe and the depths of the human soul.
As Lai shares, ' Ethereal Echoes is a melody from the heavens and a sound born within humanity.'
This exhibition represents the culmination of Lai's ongoing reflections on the complexities of contemporary life — from war and environmental degradation to the impact of rapid technological advancement — woven together with intimate expressions of the inner self.
The show is divided into three sections, each part of the exhibition invites viewers on a deeply contemplative journey.
Free admission exhibition. Open: 11am-5pm. Closed on Mondays.
More info here.
CONCERT: 'A WHISPER OF SOUL' WITH THE KLPAC ORCHESTRA
Venue: Pentas 1, KLPac
Date: May 17 and 18
A Whisper Of Soul: A Reflection Of Life's Journey is an intimate and personal three-part concert that brings you through the life of award-winning soprano Ang Mei Foong, with the KLPac Orchestra under the baton of Lee Kok Leong. It traces Ang's years training in Taiwan, Rome and Australia before establishing herself in Malaysia, pursuing her PhD and becoming a passionate music educator and performer.
The First Movement: Fate captures the youthful uncertainty and anticipation of the future, almost like a letter to her 18 year old self. In this movement, Ang brings to life three of Giuseppe Verdi's works, including La Forza del Destino or The Force Of Destiny.
Second Movement: Self Reflection features pieces like Jules Massenet's Meditation and works by Antonin Dvorak, Robert Stolz and Francesco Cilea. It marks the period that sees Ang charting her way as an artist not only in pursuit of technical excellence, but her artistic identity.
The Third Movement: Acceptance reflects the realisation that life, like art, is a continuous cycle of struggle, transformation and renewal. Richard Strauss' Vier Letzte Lieder embodies this journey with a sense of serenity.
More info here.
A wide selection of glass works by Fuan Wong is on display, including a standing piece in the right foreground. Photo: Artemis Art
EXHIBITION: 'MORE MEN (AND A WOMAN) WITH PLANTS'
Venue: Harta Space, Ampang, Selangor
Date: ends May 30
Continuing its ongoing collaboration with Harta Space, Artemis Art presents More Men (And A Woman) With Plants, the latest iteration of a thoughtfully evolving exhibition series by Penang-based artists who draw inspiration from, and pay homage to, one of nature's most enduring yet often overlooked presences: plants.
Featuring works by Ch'ng Kiah Kiean, Cheah Meng Kwok, Esther Geh, Fuan Wong (also the series co-founder), Howard Tan, IMMJN, and Thomas Howell, the exhibition goes beyond the conventions of botanical art.
Here, plants are not merely subjects of study, but vessels of memory, emotion, and time — rendered in a range of mediums from ink and photography to glass and mixed media.
Each work offers a distinct lens into the ways flora can reflect inner states, cultural imprints, and our ever-evolving relationship with the natural world.
This also marks the third instalment of the Men In Plants exhibition series, following earlier editions in George Town.
Keep an eye out for workshops and artist-led tours happening throughout the exhibition period.
More info here.
