In traditional theatre performances, it is possible to initiate connections to cultural entities and incorporate traditional materials. There are several Malay theatres such as Main Puteri, Mak Yong, Wayang Kulit, Kuda Kepang, Nora Dance-Drama and Bangsawan Popular Theatre. For this topic, I’ll be focusing on one of the Malay theatres, which is Mak Yong theatre. Mak Yong theatre is a traditional form of spiritual dance-drama from northern Malaysia that was the state of Kelantan. It was also considered the most authentic and representative of Malay performing arts because it is mostly untouched by external sources. It is also, mainly performed as entertainment or for ritual purposes related to healing practices. In conclusion, the performing arts people and the generation nowadays have forgot about traditional Malay theatres.
The first main point is that Mak Yong theatre gives a negative impact to the religious Islamic society as it is considered banned for a believed to be obtain from ancient shamanistic healing rituals and regarded as having magical significance and a special healing effect. For example, in the performances the shaman will attempt rituals to heal through songs, trace-dance and spirit possession. It is also because the performance involves male and female performers on the same stage and also because of the prayer to the various spirits at the start of the performance.
The second main point is that Mak Yong gives a positive impact to the performing arts people since it uses different types of acting, dance and music. For example, in the performance there will be an orchestra consisting of a three-stringed spiked fiddle (rebab), a pair of double-headed barrel drums (gendang) and a hanging knobbed gongs (tetawak). Also, the performances perform by women based on the Malay ancient folk tales with royal characters, divinities and clowns.
The third main point is that Mak Yong theatre gives a negative impact to the people who do not get to watch it in real life in the olden days because Mak Yong performances lasted for several days; sometimes even weeks and it usually start at around 8PM and end at around midnight. For example, it is almost impossible to find any recordings, CD and even DVD of Mak Yong performances. Hence, nowadays there’s Internet where people can search whatever they want and it will show up.
However, performing arts people tend to forget about the existence of the Malay theatre, Mak Yong, because it does not performed in today’s generation. As the previous first statement, Mak Yong theatre do not have a valid point on why it was a performance to heal the society and by that the people in the performing arts industry have less knowledge with the content of Mak Yong’s theatre. Firstly, Mak Yong theatre does not let their audiences move freely unlike other theatres. A Mak Yong theatre audience is rooted to the seats until the end of the performance. Secondly, thoughts and effort are more needed when doing a Mak Yong theatre as the performances need to combined dialogue, hypnotic music and singing with dance on a staged which was under small bamboo roof structures open at the sides. Forgetting about Mak Yong theatre can actually makes the performing arts people and today’s generation also forget about Malay theatre. Thus, by that producing traditional Malay theatre shows in nowadays generation can make them learn more about the history of Mak Yong theatre in the olden days.
In conclusion, the performing arts people and the generations nowadays have forgot about traditional Malay theatres. Mak Yong theatre should be brought back so that today’s generation will see, learn and have more knowledge about it. Moreover, for the performing arts people they can have an interest in making a theatre about it. Mak Yong also should have their own recordings in CDs and DVDs so that other people can watch it and also it helps researchers to know how the performances is, for their research. However, it is not necessary for Mak Yong to have any recordings too because in nowadays generations they can also upload it in the Internet such as YouTube. Thus, it is a lot easier for generations nowadays to search for it and also not wasting their money neither time searching for it at a shop. Both of these can give the generations nowadays and the performing arts people to learn about the olden Malay theatre and bring back the performance to real life one day. Hence, there are a lot of things to consider putting on the performances that can give a more positive impact to viewers.