Yesterday’s group performance by Group B is the final performance before the cut is made on Friday.  Results show will determine who gets to go into the quarter-finals and the boot camp. Whilst most of my fellow pundits for Anugerah Skrin, not World Cup eh, are predicting that there will be rivalry between fellow contestants, I’m actually hoping less of rivalry but more on being competitive against one another. If you’re at loggerheads with one another, how can you work together right?

The first group performance where the contestants were brought to film at Changi Beach, Fadzli played the role of a middle-man to sell Syirah, who is the girlfriend of Aidil, a very scheming and deceiving boyfriend. I haven’t come across such boyfriends before but I seriously hope they only exist in reel life!

I thought the set started out well with Aidil and Fadzli having that short conversation to agree on business but I found it a bit amusing when Syirah and Fadzli had the short bollywood tree-chase going on. I didn’t really fancy how Aidil didn’t appear reassuring as a boyfriend, albeit a scheming and deceiving one. I thought that perhaps, Aidil should have dispensed of with the deceiving look on his face to appear more convincing when reassuring Syirah or perhaps his character had required him to look so evil throughout and inhumane.

It got a little bit distracting for me when Syirah’s sudden change of emotion from fearful to angry took centrestage. It was too abrupt and then it changed again from angry to fearful when she was passed back to Aidil from Fadzli. It was like as if there was a switch, angry when at Fadzli, fearful when at Aidil. Syirah looked very comfortable to be back in Aidil’s arms being held at the neck loosely. It appeared too unconvincing to me at how Syirah was struggling to break free from Aidil’s grip as compared to Fadzli’s. But the act of the night has to go to Aidil’s look when he got whacked on the back of his neck!  He looked so damn cool with his expression!

Still on the ‘Thriller’ theme, seemed like Group B’s performance stemmed a lot from relationships as the second group took to the screen. Nasriah playing the role of someone searching for her lost lover in Firuz who mentioned that he was playing the role of an obsessive lover and finally, Aziela, the scheming friend.

Just as the set started, I spotted how Nasriah had moved her right hand to her left elbow before dropping it down. I really wasn’t too sure what the purpose is because she didn’t scratch her elbow. If anything, it looked like she was helping Aziela to scratch her hand. Nasriah sounded a lot more like someone who was hesitant to meet her long lost lover rather than an excited one. I thought that perhaps as someone who was looking for your long lost lover, you should show a bit more excitement? This was evident when there wasn’t a sense of excitement from neither Nasriah nor Firuz, who’s supposed to be the obsessive boyfriend.

The set heated up a bit more at the dining table with the presentations of the local delicacies for Nasriah to tuck in to. I felt that it was good that Aziela gave the puking reaction but Nasriah’s response to it seemed a bit too ‘I have to do this’ rather than reactive of what happened. At this juncture, I suppose Firuz meant psychotic rather than obsessive because if he was to be obsessive, he’ll be showing a totally different reaction. As a psycho, Firuz pulled it off darn well but I have to say he had the easiest role of all in my opinion as there wasn’t much need for changes in reactions or expressions. For the ending, I really liked how Aziela finally potrayed who she was, the scheming lady that she is to have brought Firuz a prey but I also thought that Nasriah should have perhaps expressed more discontent as she was being pulled away cause she looked like she was just too weak to resist or was that how her character was supposed to be?

On to the final set with just two contestants left, Diana and Erwin were made to play the role of husband and wife. Diana, as the concerned but misjudged wife and Erwin, another ‘out of your mind’ guy.

I could sense of what was to come with how the set started as Diana rummage through her drawers in search of her passport and frantically stuffed her clothes back in upon hearing Erwin’s footsteps up the flight of stairs. It had set the whole scene on track leaving only viewers to figure out the plot. Erwin, however looked too calm when he entered the house and saw the packed bag at the side. He didn’t give much of a reaction towards it.

This set actually didn’t have much dialogue to work with for me to comment on but there were definitely plenty of body and facial expression. Diana did well for this. Erwin on the other hand, just seemed too empty for me, just too plain and emotionless for me. He looked so unsure for someone who had just lost someone he loved whom he had poisoned and definitely looked uncomfortable holding Diana in his arms as he turned her face towards the camera.

I’m not going to make guesses or comment on who I feel is the weakest one or better one this week or for the weeks to come. We’ve already seen a few good performers kicked out so early. Voters, vote for talent.

Contributed by Abdillah Zamzuri

Abdillah Zamzuri is a theatre activist and an advisor to Sang Singa Purba Performing Arts Group, Singapore Polytechnic. Trained in both English and Malay theatre, he has performed, scripted and directed several performances both locally and regionally. Abdillah Zamzuri has also been a judge for the Inter-Racial, Inter-Religious Harmony Nite 2009 and had also performed for the same event in both 2008 and 2009, graced by His Excellency, President S.R Nathan. Most recently, he was a judge at National Junior College’s inaugural Malay Skit Competition alongside Nadiputra and Andry Sani.

http://abdillahzamzuri.wordpress.com