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The Star
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Star
KLPac presents a tense, darkly funny tale of three hostages clinging to hope
It's a curious detail, almost poetic in its timing. One of Joe Hasham's favourite theatre plays – Someone Who'll Watch Over Me by Irish playwright Frank McGuinness – has never made it to the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac) stage. Despite Hasham being the longtime artistic director of both The Actors Studio and KLPac, the play remained absent from the venue's repertoire. Someone Who'll Watch Over Me last appeared in January 2011 at The Actors Studio @Lot 10, a rooftop arts venue in KL now long gone. Next week, Hasham returns to Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, restaging the powerful drama as part of KLPac's 20th anniversary celebrations. From Aug 15-24, the play takes over Pentas 2 – and there's a twist: the original 2011 cast is reuniting for the occasion. Trio back together Fourteen years on, British actor Charles Donnelly, Australian Kingsley Judd, and Malaysian Gavin Yap step back into the harrowing roles of three men – an American doctor, an Irish journalist and an English academic – imprisoned in a windowless cell in Beirut, Lebanon. Cut off from the world, bound by fear and fragile hope, they face the question no one dares to ask out loud: will they ever make it out alive? For Hasham, the play left its mark on him – he's wanted to bring it back for years, and figured now is as good a time as any. Hasham returns to 'Someone Who'll Watch Over Me', restaging the powerful drama as part of KLPac's 20th anniversary celebrations. Photo: The Star/Izzarafiq Alias 'It's one of the most powerful scripts I've ever worked on. With KLPac's 20th anniversary and Ireland's 30 years of diplomatic presence in Malaysia, it felt like the perfect moment to restage it. Collaborating with the Embassy of Ireland and the Australian High Commission, as well as reuniting with our original international cast has made it even more meaningful,' says Hasham in a recent interview. He adds that they will stay true to the play's original spirit, as the story's strength lies in its simplicity and emotional intensity. Someone Who'll Watch Over Me is based on the real-life abduction of Irish author Brian Keenan, who in 1986 was taken by militia on his way to his teaching job in Beirut, where he was held hostage for four-and-a-half years. A year after his release, Keenan recounted his horrific ordeal in an autobiographical book, An Evil Cradling, which won the Irish Times Literary Prize for Non-Fiction in 1991 and was adapted into a film in 2003. A cultural bridge Australian-raised but born in Lebanon, Hasham shares a personal connection to the play's Beirut setting. 'This restaging is about revisiting something powerful and letting a new audience experience it,' he says. In the play, three men go from strangers to friends to comrades, and the same could be said for Donnelly, Judd and Yap, who share an undeniable chemistry on stage. 'I never thought we would do it again and to be honest, I wasn't sure I wanted to, because I look back on the 2011 and 2012 productions very fondly. But I love this play, and I love the character so much that it brought me back,' says Yap. Cut off from the outside world, the characters in this classic Irish theatre work fight despair with bursts of song and laughter. Photo: Weeling Chen Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, with Hasham as director, was also shown in George Town, Penang and Singapore back then. 'More than anything, what strikes me the most about the play is its humanity. It really is a story about the resilience of the human spirit, brotherhood and friendship. It feels great to be back and to be working with Joe, Kingsley and Charles again. It feels like brothers reunited,' says Yap. He adds that the play still feels as relevant today as when it was first produced back in the 1990s. First staged in 1992, Someone Who'll Watch Over Me ran on London's West End and then on Broadway in New York, where it received the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play. Currently based in Dublin, Ireland, McGuinness is heartened to hear that his play still resonates to this day, making its way to Malaysia again. 'In this world still driven by violence and wars, I hope its message – that to survive, we need to learn to live with each other, to acknowledge and to celebrate, and even enjoy our differences – hits home for audiences,' says McGuinness in a KLPac press handout. A timely message Given the ongoing war in Gaza, the play's themes – displacement, captivity, endurance, and the search for shared humanity amid conflict – feel more urgent and resonant than ever. 'Sadly, it is a tale that could be taken from present-day headlines. That said, I am so grateful to revisit and restage this magnificent piece of writing and to reinhabit the role of Edward Sheridan,' says Judd. 'When I walked into the rehearsal room, I could feel the butterflies taking wing as we prepared to step over the edge and once more into the pit,' says Donnelly. Photo: Weeling Chen With absolutely no contact with the outside world and an uncertain fate, the characters in Someone Who'll Watch Over Me fight boredom by breaking out into song and laughter, pretend they're in a flying car and do just about anything to stay sane. At the same time, they must also learn to overcome personal and nationalistic differences. Reflecting on what it's like to reprise their roles after 13 years, Donnelly says it's only natural that each of them has grown emotionally since the last staging – and that growth will inevitably shape their performances. 'Our life experiences since then may colour our response to the situation the characters find themselves in. That's not to say that anything will change, but there may be subtle differences in the performance,' says Donnelly. 'When I walked into the rehearsal room, I could feel the butterflies taking wing as we prepared to step over the edge and once more into the pit,' he concludes. Someone Who'll Watch Over Me plays at Pentas 2 of KLPac in Sentul Park (Jalan Strachan, off Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah), KL from Aug 15-24. Supported by the Embassy of Ireland in Malaysia and the Australian High Commission in Malaysia, the restaging by The Actors Studio also marks the 30th anniversary of Ireland's embassy in KL.
The Star
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Theatre show 'Anak-Anak Malik' boldly reimagines Lorca's timeless themes
The ensemble of 'Anak-Anak Malik' - (from left) Sunio Rushairi, Mark Beau de Silva, Asraf Zulk, Aidil Rosli, Ubai Talib and Aniq Syahmi - brings together a blend of experience and fresh energy to this reimagined Lorca classic. Photo: Tat Chin A classic tale of control and confinement finds new life in Anak-Anak Malik, a local adaptation of Spanish poet-playwright Federico García Lorca's The House Of Bernarda Alba, which reimagines grief as the backdrop for a clash between tradition, isolation, and rebellion. Set not in Andalusia but in an isolated 1970s fishing village off Penang called Pulau Aman, this 90-minute theatre production (with no intermission) runs for five shows at Pentas 2, KLPac from July 24–27. Anak-Anak Malik, adapted by playwright Yusof Bakar, is presented as part of The Actors Studio Seni Teater Rakyat series, with support from The Actors Studio Foundation and KLPac. Performed in Bahasa Malaysia with English subtitles, it features an all-male ensemble: Aidil Rosli, Ammar Aqsya, Aniq Syahmi, Asraf Zulk, Danish Zakwan, Mark Beau De Silva, SaifulWazien, Sudhan Nair, Sunio Rushairi and Ubai Talib. 'I have always been captivated by the play, its themes of power, control and familial love hauntingly relevant,' says Chin. Photo: Tat Chin Anak-Anak Malik also arrives in what is arguably one of the busiest months for the local theatre scene, with acclaimed productions such as Persiapan Seorang Aktor, the hard-hitting Burden Of Proof and the revival of Jit Murad's Visits already drawing significant attention in the past few weeks. Nonetheless, the addition of more quality theatre to the calendar is always to be welcomed. Emotional turmoil The story follows Malik, a grieving father who imposes a strict 100-day mourning period on his five sons after the death of their mother. As the sons resist, tensions build behind the family's walls until tragedy unfolds. Director Christopher Ling, who previously staged a musical version of The House Of Bernarda Alba in 2010, returns with a fresh perspective. 'I have always been captivated by the play, its themes of power, control and familial love hauntingly relevant. I was intrigued to see how an all-male community would react if placed in the same situation as Bernarda Alba's household. The all-male cast brings in a new lens of masculinity mixed with the fractured father and son relationship that we are, unfortunately, familiar with,' says Ling, who is also associate artistic director of The Actors Studio. At Pentas 2, KPac, the choice of setting was intentional, seating audiences as if floating at sea and peering into a lone house at the heart of the theatre. This distinctly Malaysian reinterpretation blends universal themes with local nuance. 'Pulau Aman in the 1970s affords us a strange sense of isolation. Heightened by the lack of Internet and other forms of telecommunication, Malik's family is literally disconnected from the world around them," says Ling. "This makes it easier for Malik to be able to control the movements of his family. Many of the issues addressed within the play exist only in this adaptation of the play, making it truly local in context,' he adds. With the father managing the emotional turmoil of five sons, character work lies at the heart of the production. Each son carries a distinct personality, shaped through collaborative rehearsals. 'The range of characters run the full gamut from the excluded eldest son to the fiery rebellious middle son and the manja youngest. "Character development took centre stage early on in our rehearsal process. We shared from personal experience and charted the ups and downs of the Malik household as intricately as we could,' concludes Ling. Advisory: the show features mature content and haze effects. More info here.
New Straits Times
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New Straits Times
#SHOWBIZ: When the world says 'no'
THE idea that the grass is greener on the other side always sits at the back of our minds, says director Chris Ling. He is directing the play "Let Me Go", which will be staged at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre over the weekend of July 11. "Only when we experience firsthand what it's like to be on the other side, do we truly know whether that new way of living suits us, or if the dream even fits. "Not tenaciously pursuing our dreams or passions is seen as failure, at least in the eyes of today's youth." Ling, the associate artistic director at The Actors Studio Malaysia, is directing the graduation play of Dhakshayni Jegatheeswaran. She is from the Tutas Conservatory of Performing Arts, a collaboration between The Actors Studio and Taylor's University. Co-written by Mark Beau de Silva and Dhakshayni, "Let Me Go" tells the story of Nira. She has always dreamed of going to Hollywood. A multiple Boh Cameronian Arts Award winner, Ling says that the best part of directing this play has been working with a dedicated ensemble of four young actors. "They're ready to deliver at every rehearsal. "They bring their artistry and imagination to the rehearsal studio along with a deep understanding of the characters that Mark and Dhakshayni have envisioned." Dhakshayni, a graduating student of the Bachelor's in Performing Arts at Tutas , says her love for the arts began at the age of 6. "The TV was always on, and there were always movies playing. But my real connection to the arts happened when I was 12. "I got cast in my first stage production, 'Sand the Musical', 10 years ago. That's where I fell in love with acting." Dhakshayni is not just an actor on screen and stage, but also a dancer. Steeped in kathak and bharatanatyam lessons from a young age, she later explored contemporary styles through independent projects. "In many ways, the arts have healed me. Dance, especially, has been like medicine for my soul, keeping me sane through everything life throws my way." In a world driven by social media, some may consider live theatre outdated. But Dhakshayni feels theatre allows her to be herself. "Unlike a film set where there are cuts, breaks and chances to reset, live theatre demands presence, stamina and full awareness from start to finish. "You don't get a second take, so if anything goes wrong, you learn to adapt and cover it up in the moment. It tests your resilience in a way that film doesn't. "I owe everything to theatre — it's where my foundation in acting was built. Without it, I don't think I would've grown into the actor I am today." She adds that the idea for "Let Me Go" came from her childhood experiences growing up with a dream to pursue the arts. "I was lucky to have supportive parents, but the voices around me always seemed to say the opposite. "There was this constant noise from relatives, neighbours and even teachers, all echoing the same outdated mindset that anything in the arts is a losing path." The play also explores the racism that exists in the Asian community, says Dhakshayni. "If you're Asian, you've likely felt it, whether it's the subtle looks, the 'preferences' in casting, or the way colourism plays out in who gets seen and heard." "Let Me Go" asks the audience if a young Malaysian woman can chase her dream in a world that often tells her that she shouldn't. It stars Dhakshayni herself, Lakshmi Ahrunagiry, Perassath and Tania Ashwini. The play will be staged at 8pm on July 11 and 12, and at 3pm on July 13.
See - Sada Elbalad
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- See - Sada Elbalad
Jack Betts, "Spider-Man" Actor, Dies at 96
Yara Sameh Jack Betts, who starred in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" (2002) and over a dozen Spaghetti Western films, has died at the age of 96. Betts died Thursday in his sleep at his Los Osos, Calif. home, his nephew, Dean Sullivan, said. Jack Betts Born Jack Fillmore Betts (saying he bore a relation to the 13th POTUS Millard Fillmore) on April 11, 1929 in Jersey City, NJ, he grew up in Miami, where he eventually studied theater at the University of Miami. Afterward, he moved to New York City, where he made his Broadway debut in 1953's "Richard III". When a friend asked him to help with an audition for Lee Strasberg's famed nonprofit, The Actors Studio, the director of the prestigious acting school granted him a three-year scholarship to study there. As a result, the venerated Elia Kazan later cast him in a production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". He later returned to Broadway for Kazan's 1959 production of "Sweet Bird of Youth", as well as a late '70s revival of "Dracula", in which he once portrayed the eponymous count as Raul Julia's standby. Betts' first film credit was in 1959's "The Bloody Brood", and in 1966 he was cast as the title character in Franco Giraldi's "Sugar Colt", billed as Hunt Powers for the first time, that kicked off a string of credits in over a dozen Spaghetti Westerns through the 1970s. On the television side, Betts racked up several appearances in daytime soaps, including "General Hospital", "The Young Marrieds", "The Edge of Night", "The Doctors", "Another World", "All My Children", "Falcon Crest", "Search for Tomorrow", "Guiding Light", "Generations", and "The Young and the Restless". His other notable arcs included episodes for "Perry Mason" and The F.B.I." as well as turns in popular series like "Gunsmoke", "Seinfeld", "Mad TV", "Frasier", "Everybody Loves Raymond", "Friends", "The Mentalist", and "Monk". Betts was great friends with "Everybody Loves Raymond" star Doris Roberts, whom he met at The Actors Studio in the '50s; the two shared a home from the late '80s until she died in 2016. Jack Betts in 'Spider-Man' In "Spider-Man", Betts notably portrayed Henry Balkan, the Oscorp Technologies board chairman, who booted Willem Dafoe's Norman Osborn from the company, kicking off the Green Goblin's villainous arc. Later on in the movie, Osborn parrots back the phrase to Balkan as he vaporizes the board in an attack on Times Square while gleefully shouting: 'Out, am I?'. Additional film credits include 1993's "Falling Down," with Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall, the 1995 Val Kilmer-starring "Batman Forever", and 1998's "Gods and Monsters" opposite Ian McKellen and Brendan Fraser. In addition to his nephew, Betts' survivors include his nieces, Lynne and Gail, and his sister, Joan, who turns 100 in November. Following the news of his death, Beverly Hills Playhouse shared a tribute to the late star on Instagram, writing: 'Our beloved Jack Betts passed away peacefully at home. It is a sad day for the BHP as we have enjoyed his presence for so many years. There are actors who credit him with their not giving up because of his encouragement. We were so fortunate to have enjoyed his great spirit, passion and true dedication to the work. There was only ever one like this and we are the richer for having his presence in our theatre. Rest in peace, Jack.' read more New Tourism Route To Launch in Old Cairo Ahmed El Sakka-Led Play 'Sayidati Al Jamila' to Be Staged in KSA on Dec. 6 Mandy Moore Joins Season 2 of "Dr. Death" Anthology Series Don't Miss These Movies at 44th Cairo Int'l Film Festival Today Amr Diab to Headline KSA's MDLBEAST Soundstorm 2022 Festival Arts & Culture Mai Omar Stuns in Latest Instagram Photos Arts & Culture "The Flash" to End with Season 9 Arts & Culture Ministry of Culture Organizes four day Children's Film Festival Arts & Culture Canadian PM wishes Muslims Eid-al-Adha News China Launches Largest Ever Aircraft Carrier Sports Former Al Zamalek Player Ibrahim Shika Passes away after Long Battle with Cancer Lifestyle Get to Know 2025 Eid Al Adha Prayer Times in Egypt Videos & Features Tragedy Overshadows MC Alger Championship Celebration: One Fan Dead, 11 Injured After Stadium Fall Business Fear & Greed Index Plummets to Lowest Level Ever Recorded amid Global Trade War Arts & Culture Zahi Hawass: Claims of Columns Beneath the Pyramid of Khafre Are Lies News Flights suspended at Port Sudan Airport after Drone Attacks Videos & Features Video: Trending Lifestyle TikToker Valeria Márquez Shot Dead during Live Stream News Shell Unveils Cost-Cutting, LNG Growth Plan Technology 50-Year Soviet Spacecraft 'Kosmos 482' Crashes into Indian Ocean
Khaleej Times
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
Jack Betts, star of 'Spider-Man' and 'General Hospital, dies at 96
Veteran actor Jack Betts, best known for his role in Spider-Man, has died at 96. Bett's nephew, Dean Sullivan, was quoted as saying by The Hollywood Reporter that the actor breathed his last week at home in Los Osos, California. A member of The Actors Studio, Betts portrayed Llanview Hospital doctor Ivan Kipling on ABC's One Life to Live from 1979-85, and his soap opera resume also included stints on General Hospital, The Edge of Night, The Doctors, Another World, All My Children, Search for Tomorrow, Guiding Light, Loving and Generations. Betts bluffed his way into starring as the avenging title character in Franco Giraldi's Sugar Colt (1966), where he was billed as Hunt Powers for the first time. The film kicked off a run of about 15 spaghetti Westerns for him through 1973 but left him without the fame enjoyed by another American star of similar Italian fare. He made his big-screen debut in The Bloody Brood (1959), starring Peter Falk, then joined Anthony George, Sebastian Cabot and Doug McClure in 1961 to play detective Chris Devlin on the second and last season of CBS' Checkmate, created by Eric Ambler. Betts appeared four times on CBS' Perry Mason from 1961-66 before he met Giraldi about starring in Sugar Colt. He told the director that he could ride a horse and had just won a shooting contest — of course, he had never been on a horse or handled a gun — but he spent the next three weeks learning those skills at John Wayne's ranch before reporting for duty at Cinecitta in Rome. He is survived by his nephew Dean, his nieces, Lynne and Gail, and his sister, Joan.
