TO wrap up the successful Curious Residency, a series of theatre performances featuring works by three directors, the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPaC) in Sentul Park, Kuala Lumpur presents Love & Beauty — The Sonnets of William Shakespeare from today to Sunday.

Chris Ling, director of The Sonnets of William Shakespeare.

Shakespearei’s a staple in English literature syllabuses yet many struggle with his language, associating it with things “ancient and un-relatable”.

This production is taken on by KLPaC’s Theatre for Young People (T4YP) Ensemble, whose members are aged 16 to 25.

They have worked extra hard deciphering the words of The Bard and presenting their own easy-to-understand interpretations of his texts.

Love & Beauty presents bite-sized Shakespeare at a blitzkrieg pace, geared for the younger generation with some pieces set to music and others delivered through multimedia.
The play is directed by Chris Ling with Sandee Chew as production designer, Teo Kuang Han as lighting designer, and Goh Choon Ean, Olivia Oon and Saw Poh Sim as multimedia designers.

It has original music composed by Nick Choo with poetry by Alex Broun and Helena Foo.

The cast comprises Farah Rani, Alfred Loh, Gadiy Lim, Gowry Paary, Iedil Putra Alaudin, Ivan Chan, Johann Oh, Kimberly Mehta, Marvin Wong and Oliver Peters.

In the play, one man considers the merits of love and beauty in the course of one night.

His life is whimsical and funny, yet at times poignant and sad, all revolving around the monumental works of one of Britain’s most celebrated authors, re-interpreted to suit contemporary times with the aid of modern music, poetry as well as the handy multimedia kit.

The Curious Residency showcase kicked off with director Helena Foo’s play After Our’s from Aug 21 to 31. This was followed by Eight Ways To Lighten The School Bag directed by Mark Beau de Silva from Sept 4 to 7.

Time: 8.30pm (Thursday to Saturday) and 3pm (Saturday and Sunday). Venue: The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPaC) in Sentul Park, Jalan Strachan, off Jalan Ipoh, KL. Tickets: RM25 and RM10 (students). Call 03-4047-9000 or 2094-9400.