“Oh Dad, Poor Dad” at KLPac

The Oral Stage Presents

OH DAD, POOR DAD

Grieving widow, neurotic son, the pet piranha & Venus flytraps … oh my

With support from the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac) and produced by special arrangement with Samuel French Inc., New York, the Oral Stage is proud to bring to KL a unique tale written by noted American playwright, Arthur Kopit.

SYNOPSIS

A woman-in-mourning checks into a lavish hotel with her neurotic son, a pet piranha and a pair of Venus flytraps. Moments after, a wealthy, love-stricken naval officer and the seductive, next-door babysitter pay them a visit. The fish and plants are now very hungry, the son wants to escape, and the woman’s dead husband is still lurking about somewhere…

A bizarre take on all things love, Oh Dad, Poor Dad parodies the domineering, protective mother who tries to smother her son, and also the son himself, who is too naïve and sheltered. It premiered Off-Broadway in 1962 and won the Vernon Rice and Outer Circle Awards in that same year. Oh Dad, Poor Dad was recently revived at Harvard University in 2007

FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY

Cast: NICOLE-ANN THOMAS, ALFRED LOH , HANNEKE TALBOT, APLE ANG, JOHN AREN, LINDA FOO, KEVIN KEI, ISHWIN SINGH, RAJA UMMI AND AZ’FARR BAGINDA.

Director: KELVIN WONG

Date & Time:
30 SEPT – 04 OCT 2009 @ 8:30 PM
03 – 04 OCT 2009 @ 3:00 PM (Matinee shows)

Venue:
PENTAS 2, THE KUALA LUMPUR PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE (KLPac)

Ticket:
RM35 (adults)
RM25 (students, disabled & senior citizens)

Promotions:
RM5 off every ticket for purchases of 10 or more similar-priced tickets in a single receipt!

Box Office:
(KLPac) 4047 9000 (walk-in purchases)

Tickets also available at:
TicketAxcess @ Head office (Jln. Semangat), 1-Utama outlet & Alamanda Putrajaya outlet

Venue Website: http://www.klpac.com/
Venue Map Link: http://www.klpac.org/Welcome.asp?c=venuelocation
Facebook Event link: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=102314632705

“Hamlet” at KLPac

KLPac Presents

HAMLET

A murdered King. A usurped Prince. A promise of Revenge.

All roads lead to Elsinore!

After teasing the audiences with successful performances of “The Secret Love Life of Ophelia”, “I Love You Once, I Love You Not”, “What It Means To Be … Free” and “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead”, the T4YP closes their 2009 season with the classic piece that inspired their previous performances.

Join the T4YP ensemble as they come together in their final ensemble run performing Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”.

SYNOPSIS

An undisputed masterpiece of world theatre, “Hamlet”, Shakespeare’s great tragedy of passion, corruption and revenge, has captivated audiences for over 400 years. It remains as relevant and urgent as ever.

The powerful tale opens with Hamlet returning to court only to find his father murdered and his mother married to the murderer. He is faced with a terrible dilemma – should he avenge his father’s death?

This modern interpretation of Shakespeare's classic will focus on the relationships and the people involved in this tragic tale with the politics of the story taking a back seat. The four-hour long play has been adapted into a palatable 90-minute performance for the urban, contemporary minds to absorb.

Cast:
AYUNNI BT AYUB, BELINDA HON, DINESH KUMAR MAGANATHAN, GREGORY SZE, IZMIR HADI HUSEIN, MICHAEL TAN, NABIHAN YAACOB, NICK DORIAN, NUR HIDAYA ZAKUAN, PRIYADASHINI MAGANATHAN, RACHEL DARSHINI HENRY, SALLY ANN CHAN & TUNG JIT YANG

Director: CHRISTOPHER LING
Executive Producer: DATO’ FARIDAH MERICAN
Artistic Director: JOE HASHAM

Date & Time:
10 – 12 SEPT 2009 @ 8:30 PM*
12 – 13 SEPT 2009 @ 3:00 PM (Matinee shows)
(* the performance for 11 SEPT 2009 has already sold out)

Venue:
PENTAS 2, THE KUALA LUMPUR PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE (KLPac)

Ticket:
RM 25
RM 15 (for students, sr. citizens and the disabled)

Box Office:
(KLPac) 4047 9000 (walk-in purchases)

Tickets also available at:
TicketAxcess @ Head office (Jln. Semangat), 1-Utama outlet & Alamanda Putrajaya outlet

Venue Website: http://www.klpac.com/
Venue Map Link: http://www.klpac.org/Welcome.asp?c=venuelocation

Facebook Event link: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=103914387705

Boo RapidKL!

The new RapidKL structured bus fare systems goes into effect today and it was as I expected it.

Badly executed!

Since sometime back in July, I have noticed the notices posted in the buses and LRT trains announcing the change in the bus fare system on 1st Sept. Of all the changes proposed, the one involving the “Utama” bus lines were the one that left me more than a bit perplexed as to how they will implement it. From its inception, the “Utama” bus line only had one fare point for a day pass ticket that can be used for as many bus trips within the same day of purchase. This made taking the bus very convenient and quite economical especially when one needs to transfer to multiple buses in a day.

Unfortunately, all that changed starting today with the implementation of a zonal fare structure. Instead pay a flat fare of RM2 to the driver, bus commuters would have to inform the driver which stop they would want to alight at and driver will tell them the new bus fare. Fares start at RM1, RM1.90, RM2.50 and a maximum of RM3 depending on the number of travel zones the commuter goes through to get to their stop. I guess eventually people who take the bus daily would eventually know how much they have to pay for their trip but until then the bus driver needs to tell the commuters how much to pay.

I’ve always paid RM2 for my bus trip to my office and with this new fare structure I should only need to pay RM1.90 since I only need to cross 2 zones. Nice on paper but dismal in execution! Instead of paying just RM2 for a day’s bus trip, I need to pay the RM1.90 tickets twice since in the new fare system, your bus ticket is a one way ticket instead of a day pass. Since RapidKL buses do not have bus conductors like their competitors, commuters don’t get change back when they pay for their bus fare. What is the use of charging RM1.90 instead of RM2 since no change is provided?

To throw more salt to the wound, they have disabled the Touch & Go card payment system on the buses due to technical implementation issues to adapt to the new bus fare structures. I can’t understand this reason since they would have more than sufficient time to look into the issue of using T&G cards on buses before implementing the new fare system. RapidKL do not need to look further than our neighbors in Singapore to see how they implement the EZ-Link payment card system in their buses. Bus commuters there use only their payment card instead of cash to pay for their bus fare. One only needs to touch the card on the reader when you board and touch it again on the exit reader to deduct the fare before getting off the bus. The same system should have been implemented by RapidKL as well if they wanted a structured fare system.

Inefficiencies due to poor planning will never be acceptable no matter what the economic reasons were behind the decision of pushing the plans through. For a company that prides itself as having the goal of having the “highest degree of operational excellence, engineering efficacy and service reliability” as one of its corporate missions, I must say that the implementation of this new bus fare structure has only left me with a bad impression of the planners. They could easily have avoided this dismal spectacle with better planning and execution that was more commuter friendly instead of just thinking about their coffers.

And for that I say … Boo, RapidKL!