Costumes: Anike

Anike, the main character of the play, had two distinct costumes. The first, worn during the initial scene, comrises of a wrap-around top, belt and long skirt. For the following scenes, Anike retained the wrap-around top but the skirt was replaced with calf-length pants and sampin.

Initially, Anike was conceived as a rather timid woman, who became a vengeful soul upon the murder of her brother and the defiling of her brother's corpse. However, as the character and actor developed, I felt that it was more appropriate for Anike to take on a more aggressive stance. And thus, this design for her costume was finalised.

Dark red shades were chosen as the primary colours for Anike's clothing. Red was often a symbol of courage and bloodshed, and was a favoured colour among the ancient Malays. It was chosen to represent Anike's anger and defiance towards King Maniaka.

In contrast to Yasmine's bluish outfit, Anike's represented fire and passion. The gold accessories accentuate the basic elements of the costume to give it some elements of contrast. Gold has also been used to represent wealth, as only the rich could afford such a splendour. This was a statement saying that Anike came from a noble and wealthy family, for only the nobles could wear ornaments of gold. Indicators of wealth were also present in the design of Anike's weapon, a small knife (badik).

The weapon was also a clue to Anike's martial prowess. I felt that it was proper for Anike, being the sister of the great warlord-turned-traitor Sirat, to have some measure of skill in martial arts. Besides, it would be foolish to take on the King's Royal Guards unless one was truly prepared! Another indication of her anticipation of combat were her bracers (arm guards). She wore the arm guards from the first scene, as if she was bracing herself for an unavoidable encounter with the Royal Guards.

In the following scenes, Anike was dressed in pants and sampin, the standard garb of the warrior. The practical reason behind this shift of costume was that Anike needed to be more mobile and flexible for the rest of the play. Symbolically, it represented a shift in Anike's character, from a well-bred lady to that of a seasoned warrior. (Between the lines,) it was also more practical for Anike to be dressed as such in order for her to provide a proper funeral for Sirat's body.

Tok Seth returns!

I have been informed by Mr J on Thursday that our reverred "blind seer" has returned from his quest in France! Bonjour!

Initial Ideas on Costumes

Well, it looks like our friends from the Corrupt Kingdom have been paying visits here :D I bid you all a very warm thank you and hope that you will -- from time to time -- visit again. Please share your thoughts with us the next time you drop by!

Now, on with today's matters. On this fine day I wish to relate on the initial ideas for the costumes that were worn in Anike. The designs owe a lot to Nusantaran (i.e. South East Asian) cultures, namely Malay, Javanese, Balinese, and Thai. Not to mention some Indian and European influence as well. When Himanshu told me that he needed a "generic" South East Asian culture, I had no choice but to invent one...

But how to invent an entire culture in just a couple of days? Himanshu was lucky because I was already working on a fantasy culture loosely based on the Malay and other South East Asian cultures for my Rian and Artiera fantasy art projects. I had already conducted a somewhat thorough research on the subject and was familiar with the various designs. This gave me a tremendous edge on the time it required to complete the costume design. It helped that Maiza was also familiar with the world of Rian and Artiera, making it easier for her to help me fabricate the required parts for the costumes. She even had some ideas of her own on how the parts were to look like and how they were to be made!

Shown above and below are artworks from whence the ideas for Anike's costumes came. The first (top) is a depiction of Artiera Narazura (Tiera), from my latest art project. Please note her headband, gauntlets/bracers, belt, pending (buckle), sampin (waistcloth), pants and the ivory dagger (badik). These are the very same designs that I based Anike's costume on. I only needed to change the design for her top and the colour of the outfit.

This one is a scene from "The Maritulu Chronicles", an ongoing fantasy adventure project available at my Elfwood page. It shows the duel between Daena (standing, with twin swords on hand) and the main character Rian (holding the same ivory dagger that Tiera had -- Tiera was her ancestor and the dagger is an heirloom!). It was from images such as these -- and more in my mind and skecthbooks -- that the costume ideas for the play came forth.

As a general rule, the colour yellow (and gold for that matter) was reserved for members of the royal house. Being bethrothed to Prince Nadim, I had taken liberties to allow some gold -- but not yellow -- on Anike's costume. From the onset, Anike was viewed as "fire" while Yasmine, the younger sister, was "water". I did not mean to take the literal approach, but I felt that the colours red and blue were suited to the actors who played these characters -- May (Anike) and Jin-jin (Yasmine).

The king, Maniaka (played by the awe-inspiring Mr Jayaram) had an all-yellow outfit and some armour. The armour is a European influence - ancient SE Asian kingdoms seldom had any form of metal body armour. I've decided on a minimalist approach for the armour, taking the ideas from Makyong and Menora costumes. The armour gave the character a fearsome aura, a sense of majesty and fear (while at the same time providing an "insecure little man" with some measure of protection).

As I were to find out later, drawing and painting an alternate world was not as easy as creating one in the flesh! We spent hundreds of man hours in our little "studio" at our house (the temperature in the studio could have given global warming a shame!). There were times that we not only burned the midnight oil, but it was well into the morning oil as well! All the while, we had to coordinate things with the tailor whom we've engaged to sew the clothes. But that's another post! Hehehe...

I shall narrate more on the other characters and the concepts behind their costumes in later posts... Until then...

Wanang Seri

Here is a profile of Wanang Seri, the wife of King Maniaka. This will be the first of a series of pics that I'll be posting soon. This pic was taken during the actual performance, while Fariza was waiting her turn to go on stage! The pic is quite dark, but that's just the effect that I was hoping for...

The Beginning

It all began during the middle of last month (June). I receiced a call from Himanshu offering me a job with costumes design for an apparently "controversial" play. He had previously informed me of his next project late last year. He had described it as being a "Burmese" play. I was gingerly waiting for his call, and weeks became months before I receive word of "Anike".

We met (Himanshu, Maiza and myself) at a Liverpool supporter's teh tarik joint near Green Lane, Penang. It was then that Himanshu produced a script and we discussed the general plot (or rather flow) of the play. It was determined that the play needed a generic South-East Asian cultural theme. I immediately saw in my mind's eye the designs that I had been doing for Rian and Artiera. I feel that the designs would fit just nicely into the play.

Later in the evening, we met again at Himanshu's place, this time with some of the actors present. It was there I met Kala and Jin-jin for the first time, together with May and Yao-han, whom I've met during the staging of Death of a Warrior.

I showed them what little examples I had of the designs from my sketchbook. I received encouraging comments on the artwork, but nobody was really sure of how the actual costumes were going to look like. At this stage, the designs were merely in my head. I had initially thought that Jin-jin was playing Anike, as I had envisioned the lead to have short hair!

After staying for their practice session, we (my wife and I) made our way back to Kulim and I began the initial stages of the costume designs. Within 2 days, I came up with line-drawings of the designs and these were shown to Himanshu and the other players, which this time included the director of Death of A Warrior, Mr Jayaram Menon. I saw his eyes lit up upon seeing the design for Maniaka, the character he was playing.

Everything went well and Himanshu consented to the designs. Next, it was hitting Kamdar, Popular, Duriemas and City Book Store for the raw materials and tools. Our director had a rather tight budget -- but it was very much reasonable to me... This was, after all, a work in progress!

A sincere and humble welcome

Welcome, Friends of the Corrupt Kingdom! It is my sincere hope and wish that you will be pleased at the creation of this small platform on the infinite space of the world wide web. It is also my wish --- as to the creation of this journal --- to chronicle the events that took place during our times together, and the thoughts and feelings that we would like to share with each other. May this fellowship bloom as a beautiful flower in the barren desert of Malaysian Classical Theater...

Undoubtedly, the experience - and friendship - gained during the process of the premier presentation of Anike is of unfathomable value. For (in my mind's eye) we are no mere actors on a small stage, but warriors in the blood-soaked field that is Asian English literature scene. I can see that - if properly executed - we will, each and every one of us, achieve our Common Dream.

The private presentation of Anike was akin to a lit fuse... A fuse that leads to an explosion of fame and fortune. Our greatest thanks to the Mr Wong Phui Nam - the Wizard of Words - and Himanshu Bhatt, the Seer who saw the Future and took the reigns of Cape Poetics into the Unknown. Not forgetting the critical mind, guiding hand and acting talents of Jayaram Menon, without whom the play would have been handicapped. And of course, the Players - May, Jin-jin, Kala, Joel, Yao-Han, Henry, Khaz & Aakash - without whom Anike could not have been brought to life.

Last but not least, may Anike take us further than we could ever imagine!