On the 24th of June, I was blessed with the
opportunity to attend a private showcase of the play Diplomasi Semangkuk
Nasi, directed by Chris Ling, at Studio 9, Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts
Centre (KLPAC). The play was written by local playwriter Yusof Bakar and was
acted by two final year students from ASWARA, Aniq Syahmi and Marissa Yusof. In
this review, I would like to discuss the issues that were presented in this
play.
The
story of Diplomasi Semangkuk Nasi revolves around a pair of husband and
wife and an unexpected third guest. Coming back to his home, the husband finds
his wife dragging a suspiciously large suitcase towards the door. Confronting
this odd scenario, the husband and wife go into a back and forth to uncover who
or what is inside the luggage. The wife is hesitant to admit what happened and
only urges the husband to get rid of the luggage. The husband continues to pressure
the wife to tell him the truth until she finally breaks and admits that the
luggage contains the body of their marriage counselor.
After
learning about the contents of the luggage, the husband’s mind starts to wander
and starts accusing the wife of infidelity, murder, and deceit. The wife
desperately tries to get the husband’s attention towards the body and how to
dispose of it, but the husband will not relent. After a short back and forth,
the husband slowly accepts the wife’s explanation that the marriage counselor
was there to fix the pipes and somehow fell and hit his head thus causing the
couple to be in the situation they are in currently. The wife suggested a few
methods to get rid of the corpse, such as burning the body, burying the body
and throwing the body into the garbage dump. The suggestion was turned down
immediately by the husband, and he immediately left the house to think of
something.
With
the husband’s absence, the wife begins to monologue about how they met. Soon,
the husband would return home, bringing a bag of rice and asking the wife to
cook him porridge as he was starving. The wife complied and made the porridge
for the husband to feast on, actively ignoring the luggage. While he was
eating, they started to argue about philosophical matters, specifically why the
husband chose Edward Said over Noam Chomsky. They argued over this matter for
moment before they begin to argue about any matter that they can. All of the
bickering was then cut short when the luggage, or the person in it, started to
groan. As the counselor starts to regain consciousness, the husband takes a
chair and prepares to swing on the luggage before the lights cut to black.
This
play is a satirical comedy that is set in the current day and discusses issues
that are present today. Using Sigmund Freud’s, Theory of Psychoanalytic, we can
relate the issues that were brough up in this play with the three principles of
the theory which are Id, Ego and Superego. Id, being the impulsive, unconscious
part of a human being that demands immediate satisfaction, is clearly presented
in both the husband and wife. The husband’s hunger overrides his need to solve
the issue at hand to the point he left his wife alone with the body to buy
rice, then demanding her to cook for him. The issue that we can relate to this
concept is the husband and wife’s inability to find the correct course of
action to solve the problem at hand. They kept ignoring the elephant in the
room and chose to engage in unproductive arguments.
The principle of Ego, however, can
be related to the issue of the husband’s denial of the wife’s infidelity.
Denial is a defense mechanism used by the husband’s Ego to minimize the pain of
his wife’s infidelity by believing his wife’s story about how the marriage
counselor was only there to fix the pipe. Instead of accepting the fact that
his wife has been unfaithful, he subconsciously refused to acknowledge it.
Based on my observation, the final
issue that was brought in this play is infidelity. Relating to the theory of
psychoanalytic. This act contains two out of three principles, the Id and Ego.
The wife’s Id wants to commit infidelity, but her Ego knows it would bring bad
consequences if the husband were to find out, thus why she felt the need to lie
to her husband when he saw the body.
What is interesting is that throughout this play, it feels like both
characters lack the concept of Superego, which identifies right and wrong. They
appear to know what is right or wrong, but they tend to choose whatever options
that feel right to them but are morally questionable or sometime outright
wrong. For example, when the husband decided to hit the luggage as soon as the
counselor started to gain consciousness.
In my opinion, this play
successfully portrayed the gravity of the issues in the play clearly. The
issues that were brought up like inability to take actions, denial and
infidelity are common and are in need of addressing. I enjoyed watching and
analyzing this play. I hope in the future they will show more plays that discuss
more pressing issues like this as a reminder or reflection of what needs to be
corrected in our society.
#KLPAC #DiplomasiSemangkukNasi
#ChrisLing
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