NATRAH

I love theater. It is one of my favourite form of art that I really appreciate and value very much. I may not know a lot about it but I do know the amount of hard works involved in producing and presenting a good play. I love the idea that a group of people working closely together for months (or years) to perform 2 to 3 hours long play. All those sleepless night, all the research and character studies involved. It must have been emotionally and physically demanding. The audience then will be rewarded with a live performance. The raw energy in a live performance, I think is something so incredibly awesome to experience and it is exactly what I want to feel when I am watching a play.

However, it is rather unfortunate I must say that I did not really get to feel it when I was watching Natrah last night at Istana Budaya. Natrah is a play directed by none other than Erma Fatima, a power house name in the industry with Maya Karin in the lead role as Natrah a.k.a Uberdina Maria Hertogh.

Natrah is one of those name that is quite close and familiar to Malaysian and I do believe she needed no further introduction especially for some of us who read law. To some, the story of Natrah is a tragedy while others may look at her story as a landmark in a Malaysian history that not only sparks controversy legally but it involves serious question of faith and religion.

So based on this basic idea alone one can expect that this could be the premise of a really good story. It has all the potential. But, sadly, I am of the opinion that the play last night have failed to live up to the big potential it had. I am quite disappointed as I think the story of Natrah could "easily" be translated into a masterpiece. It has all the elements of a good story. Love, Sacrifice, Religions, Conflict, Tragedy etc but somehow the play lack something. It is as if, a chef have all the right ingredients to prepare for a grand feast but somehow the chef decided to order take-out instead. That is exactly what I feel after watching it.

The whole thing seems a bit rushed. It was as if they did not do a proper and thorough research on how to tell this story. As a result, the play is quite bland and quite straight forward. Not that this is wrong or bad but I was hoping that this play will tell us new things about the life of Natrah. Not merely regurgitating all the well known facts of her life.

Erma Fatima as the director just presented a story that majority of us already know. She offered no new perspective on the story, no new interpretation of what truly transpired behind all the conflicts that surrounded the legal battle between Natrah's biological parent and her foster mother and the life of Mansor Adabi after Natrah's was brought back to Holland. None of these were in the story. So, I was quite disappointed.

I think maybe the production team was in a hurry to produce this play because of the recent demise of Natrah a few months ago. Perhaps they wanted it to be shown to the public while people are still talking about it. This is probably why this whole thing seems a little bit rushed and slightly ill prepared.

One thing that I have to point out is that the use of the spirit of Islam among the Malays in this story. Yes, I know for a fact that the story of Natrah mainly is about conflict in religions between Islam and Christianity and I truly understand what Erma Fatima tried to do when she deal with this subject matter in the play. I applauded her for that as I am all into the sanctity of Islam. However, I wish she would have done it in a different way especially in the demonstration scene so as to give a better view on why Muslims in Malaysia at that time did what they did. This is crucial because she needed to explain why Natrah's faith was extremely important to her foster's mother. Nevertheless, on this note. I can see that in her direction, at least she tried to be impartial in this whole Islam-Christian conflict but I wish she would have dwell on it further.

Having said all these, to be fair this theater is not entirely bad. I was just a little bit disappointed that it was not what I had expected it would be. I was hoping to know about her life after she went back to Holland but this part was not shown.

The other good things is Sofea Jane. The opening monologue by Sofea Jane is quite good. Her monologue was clear and she presented it neatly. It is quite haunting to see her in a white dress surrounded by lots and lots of white flowers alone in the dark stage. She appeared only twice in the theater as the old Natrah. I particularly love her monologue at the end of the play where she asked the audience what her life means to all of us. She asked the audience, as Natrah, whether her demise was accompanied by our prayers and talqin or whether her demise is already long forgotten. It is a sad thing for Natrah to had to go through what she went through in her life and Sofea Jane in my humble opinion seems to deliver Natrah's heartache and confusion perfectly. , But, my only little complaint of this section is that why she had to have an Indonesian accent?? Is it just me who notice this?? Is anyone else out there felt the same way too about her accent?? hmmm...

Meanwhile, Maya Karin is suprisingly quite believable as a 13 years old Natrah. She play the character with such naivete and charm that you almost forget that she is pushing 30 in real life. Umie Aida as the foster mother is as usual, believable. But, I personally would have liked if a real life old actress is cast for this role instead of a young actor playing it. But since she is good at it, I have no further comment about it.

But, most of all, the best performance in my opinion was from Samantha Schubert who play Natrah's biological mother. She is so convincing and believable as the mother who believed that she was betrayed by a friend that she trusted and will do anything to get her child back.

As a whole, the play is okay for me. It was not bad. It was just not what I had expected or hoped it would be. That does not make it bad at all.

Apart from the story, speaking of the real life event of Natrah, I personally agreed that she should have been given back to her biological parents. Yes, as a Muslim it is unfortunate that she will no longer practice the religion but she was just 13 at that time and her parents have all the right to raise her as a Catholic. Just imagine if your Muslim daughter who had to be given away temporarily is suddenly raise as other than a Muslim? You would have done exactly what Natrah's parents did and would have feel what Natrah's parents had felt about the whole situation.