最新報導的部落格

Tangled mess: The cast of The Danny Crowe Show (clockwise from top) Khaz Shamia, Malik Taufiq, Erin Marie, Adeline Ong, and (middle) Rosheen Fatima find their twisted tales tangled as they fight to get the attention of the eponymous Danny Crowe

The lure of becoming reality TV stars sets off a dark and wacky adventure in this British comedy.

YOU are what you eat, you become what you watch.

For siblings Peter and Tiffany, the leads of British playwright David Farr’s dark comedy The Danny Crowe Show, a diet of trashy, scandal-mongering reality television has driven them to want to become stars of the eponymous TV show.

Set in the small town of Bury in England, the play revolves around Peter and Tiffany who live with their death-obsessed mortician father, whose Addams Family-grade weirdness have caught the eye of Magda, a scout for The Danny Crowe Show.

The Danny Crowe Show itself acts as an analogue for the Jerry Springer Show, where people contest to be the freak of the week.

In the upcoming local staging by Electric Minds Project, director Alex Chua seeks to dissect the craving for fame and how far people will go to get their 15 minutes in the limelight.

“If that carrot of TV stardom was dangled in front of you, how far would you fall to get it and why would you even do so? I think people would be surprised with each others’ reasons,” said Chua in a recent interview.

The show plays at Damansara Performing Art Centre in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, starting this Thursday.

He assures that the localisation has taken out the unnecessary British-isms, but avoided making it too Malaysian either.

“We avoided making it preachy, we’re not criticising reality TV ... just exploring why people are so desperate to get on it,” shared Chua.

For actor and musician Nick Davis, who plays Peter, he easily identifies with his character, saying the sense of desperation to be famous is an all too familiar hunger.

“I base that hunger on how I am with my music. I’ve the same drive to get my music out there and draw Peter’s emotion from that drive. In most roles I play, I tend to draw from my own experiences and feelings,” said Davis, whose forays into music include being the frontman of Malaysian rock band Roosevelt and recently, a solo project.

Co-star Rosheen Fatima reveals that she doesn’t share Nick’s thirst for fame.

“I’ve never really wanted to be a star, I feel rather shy on most days,” she said, earning incredulous looks from Chua and Davis.

“Well, I did want to audition for the Asian edition of The Amazing Race for the chance to travel, but I wouldn’t want cameras in my bedroom. What happens in there deserves privacy,” admitted Rosheen.

Rosheen plays the role of Tiffany, Peter’s younger sister, though in reality the 29-year-old actress is four years older than her on-stage brother.

“He (Davis) really treats me like a younger sister: He bullies me endlessly. It’s downright abusive,” she joked.

The second child among seven siblings, Rosheen draws from real-life experiences about dealing with brothers. Surprisingly, Davis is an only child though he seems “in character” occasionally punching Rosheen lightly on the shoulder during the interview.

Originally, Rosheen had been cast as Lynette, a victim of a botched plastic surgery that seeks to sell her story to The Danny Crowe Show, setting her up as the competition to Peter and Tiffany.

“They auditioned another girl for Lynette after Rosheen. She declined. I read the script and loved Lynette and happened to express how I felt about the script to Nick. It was Nick who encouraged me to approach Alex. I did and the rest is history,” said Erin Marie.

Like Peter and Tiffany, Lynette is a fellow native of Bury, desperate to escape from the doldrums of small town life.

Chua feels that everyone has something they desperately want and need to help them escape from the dull reality of the everyday, be it a dream job or a plane ticket out of town.

“The magic of reality TV is that any ‘normal’ person can be on it. It makes everyone believe that they could be a TV star. Anyone can be famous like how American Idol offers fame or infamy to the winners and losers.

“Even if we judge the contestants, we’re vindicated because it’s on reality TV,” said Chua.

“Reality TV may be trash, but it’s great trash,” he added with a laugh.

Davis continued: “People like drama and that’s why they like this ‘trash’. MTV Real World was one of the first reality shows I remember and not much has changed since then.”

Rosheen opines that while American game shows tend to be gross and mean, the Japanese took it to another level.

“I remember this show where contestants stand out in the snow in their underwear, across from a hot bowl of noodles. First one to break and go for the noodles loses. It was mad, seeing these full-grown men freezing, staring at noodles in the snow and crying. You could see snot icicles!” said Rosheen.

Marie reasons that it’s fair to laugh at other people’s pain, as long as you’re open to being laughed at, too. To that effect, The Danny Crowe Show challenges its audiences to laugh at its cast and perhaps learn to laugh at themselves.

The Danny Crowe Show is playing at the Damansara Performing Art Centre, Empire Damansara, Jalan PJU 8/8, Damansara Perdana, Petaling Jaya, Selangor at 8.30pm from June 27 to 29, with a 3pm matinee on June 29 and 30. Tickets are from RM23- RM33. Call 012-284 2389 or visit www.dpac.com.my.