Arms and the Man.

“War, the dream battlefield of the warriors and patriots, but in the end the bloodshed promises nothing..just like the love.”

It needs no evidence that even the greatest would fall.

Actually the phrase came from a small theatre show that I went to this evening. The title of the play was Arms and the Man. Background of the play was set back during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War. The play based on a true story and originally written by a socialist and a literature Nobel Prize winner, George Bernard Shaw whom has produced 63 dramas and plays. It is a classical theatre and delivered in the medium of Bahasa Melayu by ASWARA (Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaan) students. Sitting almost on front row of the experimental theatre hall of ASWARA, one important thing that I've realised was classical theatre has little actions and most of the play relied on the characters’ dialogues and expressions. For a scene it took 10-15 minutes for only two of the actors/actresses pairing up to perform their lengthy dialogues. I was mesmerized by how they could remember those lines brilliantly in the same time giving the expressions and throw their voices to the crowd loudly. Lovely and charismatic I shall say. It was a delightful performance, sheer class from the two hour romantic-comedy classical theatre that the ticket was only worth RM5.

In which far more better than the rubbish on our TV nowadays.

These actor/actresses should be unearthed and prove their talent somewhere. I thought we have lost the ability to produce top quality performers but I am completely wrong now.

Furthermore, I always thought that a drama or a movie should rely heavily on the scripts and dialogues rather than the actions.

A little expression shows a thousand meaning and an action sometimes proves nothing, just like in the real life situations. Deeds done without sincerity, left without the earnest emotion. Meaningless hypocritical aggression is far more useless than a frank and genuine smile.


I've googled "Arms and the Man" and this picture caught the attention of mine, classic and these individuals must be the performers of the past play.

Looks like the scene has a new fan now!

p.s : Click here for full synopsis of Arms and the Man.

p.p.s : Had so much new experience during the holidays but sadly I don't really have a proper camera.

p.p.p.s : It seems like everybody's having a black leather jacket. OK,this's really off topic too and a possibility of post script annoyance.