Having been disappointed by performances in the first week, I was looking forward towards interesting and surprising acts from this group as they have had the priviledge to observe their fellow competitors in Group B.

I don’t think I had to wait long when the first group took to the screen with their performance. Set in an idyllic setting somewhere near the coast, I’m guessing it’s Sembawang near Masjid Kampung Wak Hassan, our fellow competitors were locked up in a heated argument over several issues with the first being the location followed by who had issued the invitation and lastly, about what had happened to one of the characters.

At this stage of the competition, I’m not sure if Razie is able to carry off different roles because everytime he speaks, he looks like a typical ‘abang-abang’ even when he’s just delivering normal tone dialogues. His body and facial expression makes him look as if he’s always out to fight or perhaps he’s just uncomfortable to relax and assume a different character. Mariah who was the stalwart in the first week, once again managed to deliver a very convincing performance but perhaps fell short of a performance better than her first. I can’t help but notice if Mariah is going to get all the lead characters in the next episodes to come because tonight was another night where her character was the focus of attention. Maybe this could be looked into to give others the opportunity to anchor such roles?

Nissa was definitely better this week and I cannot help but notice the uncanny similarity between her and Elfaeza Ul-Haq in terms of physical appearance. I am however puzzled at how to link Nissa with the sweet girl who’s not because she definitely didn’t cut the sweet look right from the start of the performance unless it was only made in reference to how she was ‘made up’. Dzar was also much better this week and had also delivered himself well convincingly enough as the innocently evil guy. He does however, could work more on his facial expression to appear really convincing.

Overall, I’d say that this was a commendable performance. It wasn’t that bad nor was it horrible to say the least. There was a good balance of chemistry and banter of dialogues between this group.

With the end of the first group, more was expected of the second group. Their performance started out with Halimah running away from Shahril in the woods which was quite funny to me actually because they none of them looked like they had ran through the woods because there were too clean! I’m not sure who to blame for Halimah’s unconvincing knee injury because there wasn’t any blood or cuts but Halimah certainly didn’t convince me at ‘Ouch!’. She retracted her leg really fast for someone who was in pain with her knee!

I’m particularly very confused with what Fahmy was supposed to be. He didn’t look humane enough nor did he look like a police officer throughout the entire performance except for the scene where he admitted he was a police inspector. The rest of his performance were simply too heroic looking that perhaps was simply unconvincing. Fahmy didn’t look sympathetic nor did he have any reaction when Halimah ran towards him asking for assistance. It looks abit tangkap handsome. Even as a cool police officer, he probably needed to win a bit of favours from both sides with how he spoke and reacted. I have never remembered not flinching when a knife is brandished. A police officer, no matter how heroic would have assumed a slightly more defensive stance to protect himself.

Shahril though, was an absolute wonder to watch as the psychotic looking murderer. He was perhaps the best performer in this performance with his emotions and expressions delivered really well and deserves to be in the next round.

With two performances done, the last one had better impress me and they sure did! It was perhaps the most convincing performance of the three for the night in my opinion with a few minor hiccups. Idris when he started looked like he had never drove a car before. He looked to static in his seat with his right arm looking extremely decapitated but he was definitely perfect to me for the rest of the performance. Idris managed to maintain good emotions, expression and voice control throughout his performance. Well done Idris!

Biwa had a few on and off moments in the beginning especially when she started off well in the car only to suddenly had a change of expression and voice intonation from worried to angry/ sarcastic. She was however, good throughout the rest as the jealous girl. Sakinah was in my opinion the weakest link for this group, she had too many moments where she lost her focus as someone who was shot and dying. There’s a lot to name and to begin was definitely her eyes. Her eyes gave away her lost of focus several times right from the start when she was about to be carried off, to the time when she was being carried out where she kept looking to her left and then when she was lying on the ground and about to die.

Sakinah also had inconsistency in her speech as someone dying but nonetheless, this was perhaps in my opinion, the best performance tonight. If asked to judge, I’d say that Idris was perhaps the best performer tonight. Congrats to all and all the best for your results!

I hope those of you reading this will make proper judgement calls to 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.