Real women, true stories

KUALA LUMPUR: Behind every great man, there’s a great woman. Some strong women are often found behind the scenes, but that doesn’t mean that she’s any less powerful.

In conjunction with International Women’s Day, Kuala Lumpur’s Performing Arts Centre (klpac) pays tribute to these real life superheroes: our mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts.

Klpac’s latest episode of Life Sdn Bhd titled ‘The Power Of Women’ brings us true stories told by real women.

“I believe that women are forever being tested, not just by men, but also by fellow women,” said director and producer Datuk Faridah Merican.

“Women tend to be questioned and sometimes ridiculed. It can sometimes be a hard life for a woman,” she said.

“This year we thought to give or like to hear the voice of the woman on stage,” said Faridah.

“It’s stories about their experiences either has a woman or living with a woman,” she adds.

Faridah said that her inspiration for creating the Life Sdn Bhd series stemmed from the 2003 flash flood which destroyed the Plaza Putra Actors Studio.

“We were thinking of what we can do to save ourselves because we’d lost everything in the floods,” said Faridah.

“I was talking to Joe, my partner, husband, and artistic director of the actor’s studios, and I said ‘I suppose this is life, sometimes you’re up, and sometimes you're down’, so we came up with this title of Life Sdn Bhd,” she recalled.

Faridah said that the beauty of the production lies within telling true stories on stage based on the important issues that affects Malaysians.

“We talked about all aspects about life. We began with what it meant to be Malaysian, then we then went onto other issues that affect us like breast cancer, abuse, the refugee problem, HIV aids, and so on,” said Faridah.

Faridah said that they would produce one or two Life Sdn Bhd productions every year. But this year, she decided to base the episode on young Malaysians expressing their thoughts around the theme of ‘The Power of Women’.

“It’s just true stories told by a group of people. The audience will be able to watch the production unfold through music, song and real stories,” she said.

“What we hope to achieve is that when the audience listens to our stories, they will realise how simple it is to tell a good and real story about an important topic like the power of women,” said Faridah.

Details of ‘Life Sdn Bhd: The Power Of Women’ are as follows:

Date / Time : 13-15 Mar @ 8.30pm, 16 Mar @ 3.00pm

Venue: Pentas 2, klpac

Ticket price: RM 43 / RM 33 (for students, disabled, or TAS Card members)

You can buy tickets by calling klpac at [phone] or visit TicketPro Online Ticketing (www.ticketpro.com.my).