Sunday, September 23, 2007
Anike-Finished!!!
So, I have finished reading the play ‘Anike’ and I think it is a good and well-written play. This play has more graphic depiction on certain things especially in the way how the writer wrote the dialogues that refers to Sirat’s rotting corpse. I have a tremendously ‘challenging’ time when I tried to imagine the images of these description. When compared with Antigone, I feel that Anike does not have the same level of intensity in terms of the feeling of sorrow that I had for the characters especially for Anike and Maniaka. I had difficullty in understanding the chorus’s line in Anike than in Antigone which I found to be ironic since it was written in modern English compared to the Antigone’s text that were translated to Old English. What I like most about Anike is how the Malay history Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat was creatively combine and integrated in this version of Antigone. I remember one question Dr. Edwin asked us before we started to read the play; he asked us if Anike is a version Sophocles’s Antigone?. He also asked us how Wong Phui Nam made Anike a play in its own right. In my opinion, he made this play in its own right by adding in the local elements (the Hang Tuah & Hang Jebat story) and changing some detail of the stor here and there for example when Nadim didn’t get to touch Anike before he dies. In overall, I think this Anike is as good as Antigone but I liked Antigone more because I enjoyed reading Antigone more.
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3 comments:
elo chelc.
i agree with you on anike has more graphic depiction of sirat's wretched body.in antigone, polyneices' body is only decsribed as '...his wretched body...sweet...to the vultures...a welcome feast that they are eager." (Line 27-29).
on the other hand, sirat's body is extravagantly depicted as "...naked to the eye of day that sees him bloat into a monstrous a balloon...open in the wind...swollen belly thick,offensive gases of decay.the sun will ferment his skin into a greyish green so that it spreads like mould in patches beneath a buzzing lace-work of glistening black and bottle-blue dung flies fighting to nest their larvae in the jellied blood." (Prologue, pg.2)
i can REALLY imagine how his body rots.eeewww! gross!
another thing i agree with you is on anike being in its own right rather than just an imitation of antigone.1st of all,every scene in anike is started off with the lighting setting-suggests days and time changing.2ndly,the stage direction are written in details.3rdly,there is prologue and exodus.
however,i'm not in your opinion of antigone is more intense in action.i tend to re-read anike whenever i hv the time bcuz it's bearable with its easier language.in fact anike helps me to understand antigone.
Although Dr Edwin has finished discussed the play "Anike" with us, but I don't have much impression about the play because most of the story is basically no much difference with "Antigone". I wondered how the playwright Wong Phui Nam could get the copyright of the play. Only after reading Chelsea's post I know what the differences between these two plays and how Wong Phui Nam made it in its own right. I was paying too much attention to the plot of the story until I missed some of the crucial details that made it a unique play that stands on its own right. I agree with Chelsea that reading "Anike" and "Antigone" were totally of different mood. Reading "Antigone" emerged the feeling of sorrow that we could feel the intensity of the play. Whereas reading "Anike" is more "relax". Like Chelsea, I also appreciate the creativity of Wong Phui Nam in integrating the Malay Legend of Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat into the play by which he successfully portrays the play full of local feeling and colour.
Wow!! That’s the first word that came out of my mouth when I read your blog on Anike…..Surprisingly you actually loved Anike…I totally agree with you that Antigone helped me understand Anike better because I can easily relate the characters and their traits as well as their flaws…I cant’ imagine reading Anike without Dr Edwin’s guidance….….it would have been a total disaster…. trust me…it could have made me even more confused because certain dialogues are different and I often tend to read Anike as if I was reading Antigone…Dr made it very clear about the similarities and differences in Anike as well as Antigone…and that was definitely a great help…I too agree that Wong Phui Nam is a very talented play writer because revising Antigone into his own words is indeed a tough job…I’m very proud of him….but unfortunately I didn’t enjoy Anike….
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