PLAY AILS IN TRANSITION

THE adaptation in Bahasa Malaysia of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, staged recently at the Matic Auditorium in Kuala Lumpur, was a test of how good the translation work was.It was no doubt an ambitious project staged by students of the National Arts Academy (Akademi Seni Kebangsaan). After hardly two weeks of intensive training, there they were, all geared up to give a rather melancholic and, as it turned out, not so in-depth interpretation of this Pulitzer prize-winning play.

Sometimes memorable and outstanding works of great writers such as Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller should just be left alone in their original text.

Messing with them can result in works that are inferior. And more often, translation is a dicey affair because the essence and true meaning of the play might be lost, or the translation could be too direct and unnatural sounding.

The Malay version of Death of a Salesman was no doubt a good exercise in translation and production for the arts students. But condensing a lengthy four-hour play into two-and-half hours would need a lot of creativity, hard work and practice. And a good grasp of the language is definitely a must before one embarks on this ambitious task.

Getting veteran Ahmad Yatim to play Willy Loman was a good idea.

Sadly though, the momentum set by the slow-paced directing coupled with wasted and insignificant lines didn't make Willy Loman a character the audience would empathise with. The weak script, which needed a thorough rewriting, bogged down the whole play.

The rather monotonous and pensive evening mood was set right from the start. The not-so-encouraging turnout of 30 people in a splendid hall like the newly renovated Matic which could easily seat at least 300 people would make one feel as if the whole preview was an exclusive one.

But there is nothing outstanding about Death of a Salesman here. The team of scriptwriters and director have left out aspects that might have made the play more profound and meaningful. The essence and significance of the play were only tentatively put across.

Willy Loman's character was not well established. Other than the fact that his glory days as the Number One salesman are over, his traits as a salesman, something that he is proud of, were not made apparent to the audience.

Moreover, his rather careless, insulting and patronising remarks to his friend, Charley (Mazlan Tahir), children Biff (Khir Rahman) and Happy (Zaini Abu Hassan) came across as an everyday thing.

Even when he was arguing profusely with his patient wife, Linda (Rohani Yousoff), the argument was quite trivial and only hinted that Willy Loman is an impatient, easily agitated man.

The play took off at a snail's pace with the ageing and whining Willy Loman coming home from a hard day's work and his tireless wife, Linda, waiting on him with encouraging and loving words. This was to be the prelude to the central theme of the play.

From then on, the pacing of the play became rather inconsistent - at times bearable, at other times excruciatingly slow.

Death of a Salesman is a sad story about how a tired, ageing businessman named Willy Loman is slowly being sidelined in his work. His frustrations and depression worsen when neither of his two children, Biff and Happy, shows any inclination to become successful.

And when the story gradually picked up momentum and was about to reach the climax (the scene in which Willy Loman is sacked from his job) it didn't quite affect the audience.

Director Roselina Johari Mohd Khir tried to conjure up the troubled past of Willy Loman - his brief fling with a woman, his hopes and confidence in his brother Ben (Ahmad Ramzani Ismail) who left for better prospects in Africa and his first encounter with Linda were presented in a jumbled way.

It's fine to show these incidents in flashback but not while there's already another scene on stage. It makes it so confusing and distracting when you are trying to concentrate on the play. The tragic ending in which Willy orchestrates his death by crashing his car was only portrayed with a loud screech. This was supposed to be the pinnacle of the climax that never was.

The funeral scene was a solemn and quiet affair. The play concluded here and at this point, the ending looked very subtle and failed to evoke any melancholic emotions. How sad!

Ahmad Yatim as Willy Loman did fairly well. Consummate actor that he is, there was something about the Willy Loman character he created that became very endearing towards the end of the play.

But with a feeble script, no amount of good acting can help an actor shine on stage. Yatim tried hard, faltering minimally as he went on with the uninspiring lines, padding his character with certain stylised traits and mannerisms. At the end of the play, he almost succeeded in impressing the audience with his version of Willy Loman but not quite.

However, it was one of Yatim's best performances, despite the poor direction and forgettable dialogue making it difficult for Yatim to excel. Also, the disappointing acting of his co-actors Rohani Yousoff, Khir Rahman and the rest (excepting Mazlan Tahir who played Charley well) restricted him from doing better.

Veteran actor Rohani passively portrayed Linda. Sometimes it was rather obvious that her lines were a direct translation, which was so jarring to the ears.

Mazlan gave a fresh treatment to his Charley character whereas Khir Rahman overplayed Biff and failed to make an impact.

For some reason - be it a lack of confidence in a student production, difficulty in relating to such a theme or the origin of the play being Western - the four-day performance of Death of a Salesman staged at the newly, spruced-up Malaysian Tourist Information Centre in Jalan Ampang failed to attract theatre-goers.

Students of ASK should not feel discouraged by this poor turnout as it might have worked in their favour. With more time, practice and a simpler play, perhaps they will put up a more successful production the next time.

BY ZIEMAN - PUBLISHED 29/10/2001