London-based Malaysian actor's virtual monologues welcome minority voices

London-based Malaysian theatre practitioner Law's online theatre performance 'Monologues From My Bedroom' is currently doing an open call and she would love for fellow Malaysian artists and audiences to get involved. Photo: Vincent Rosec

London-based Malaysian stage actor Vinna Law isn't allowing the Covid-19 pandemic to stop her from continuing work in theatre.

To the Ipoh-born Law, all that is needed to make theatre happen is a performer, an audience and a space... be it a virtual space now.

She recently launched Monologues From My Bedroom (Monologues), an online theatre performance series that will showcase six to eight new works from actors all around the world.

The Monologues’ worldwide open call will end on April 12. This project is collaboration between Law’s theatre company Cognatus and Singapore/London-based theatre company Rumah.

“It was really overwhelming in the beginning with news about the loss of jobs, and the theatre and film industry having to come to a halt to curb the spread of the virus, ” recalls Law, 27, in an email interview.

But two days after her self-isolation in mid-March began, Law, who was trained at the East 15 Acting School in Essex, had an idea during dinner.

“The purpose of this Monologues project is to remind fellow actors and artists that despite the current physical limitation imposed on us, our imagination is limitless. It’s kind of a prompt for us to continue creating, continue working on our craft and also celebrate the fact that we are living in a time where the world is (digitally) connected, ” says Law, who currently resides in South London.

Law co-founded Cognatus in 2018 (with six other international course mates), while Rumah was founded by London-based Singaporean theatre-maker Nur Khairiyah.

For Monologues, Law encourages original monologues that are between five and 10 minutes long. Most importantly, as the title suggests, the monologue needs to be recorded in the participant's bedroom. To help guide the creative process, a participant’s toolkit is provided.

“As Rumah and Cognatus are two companies that champion diversity and minority voices, we would definitely have that at the back of our minds when curating.

“However, we will mainly focus on the content of the monologue, quality of performance and well as relevance to the given circumstances, which is creating something that is a good fit to the space limitations we’ve placed - the bedroom, ” says Law.

Notifications on chosen monologues will be sent out by April 15 and the works will go live on Youtube on April 20.

For more details, visit Cognatus and Rumah.