The ecological disaster brewing in our oceans that is the marine trash vortexes – the soupy collections of debris, mostly plastics – has rarely gone beyond the headlines in Malaysia.

But a group of six young artists from Penang who call themselves the Plasticity Theatre Troupe are looking to change that with their contemporary shadow play Plastic City.

“Usually people use scientific facts or statistical figures to talk about this common yet often neglected environmental issue, but with Plastic City we are using light, shadow and music to discuss it,” says Fish Lim, who is the sound and music designer for the show.

Lim says they are using recycled plastics and other materials to create the images to tell the story of the plight of marine life in the blue ocean against the non-biodegradable “monster” in their shadow puppet performance that will be on at The Play Haus, Old Klang Road in Kuala Lumpur, starting May 26.

While Plastic City is the first environment-themed performance by the troupe, this will be its third staging – the shadow play premiered at the Sinkeh artspace in George Town, Penang, in March last year and participated in the Tua-Tiu-Tian International Festival of Arts in Taiwan in November.

The show has been a good exercise for the young creative team to marry its strong interest in the environment with its deep passion for the arts, especially shadow puppetry, says Goo Zhuan Xuan, the show director.

“It has not only given us a chance to explore scientific facts like the impact of excessive dumping of non-biodegradable rubbish into the sea, but also the ugly side of human nature that is causing the contamination of our oceans and its marine life,” shares Goo.

Crucially, he adds, it has given them a chance to practise what they are preaching by recycling and upcycling materials.

“We support and advocate the idea of upcycling or reuse of resources. All materials that we use in the production are collected from what others have thrown away. We wanted to start with ourselves by extending the life of used objects,” he says.

The Plasticity Theatre Troupe members, all in their 20s, collected various materials they could find – from magazines, flyers and brochures, food packaging, plastic containers, plastic bags, plastic bottles and even a raincoat – at events, on the streets, from friends, family and others.

“One thing that we are very excited about this project is not only we learned about ‘upcycle’, but also the process of turning waste into a kind of performing arts, indirectly giving the rubbish a second life,” agrees Lim.

It all started back in 2015 when Goo and the troupe’s artistic director Tan Lay Heong accidentally discovered plastic’s translucent character when they were doing a children’s play production.

“We immediately became fascinated and started experimenting with different plastic materials for about three months. Lay Heong then suggested we adopt the upcycling concept in our creative process and we decided to take it as the core base of this show.”

Goo, who has been involved in theatre since his secondary schooldays and undergone an apprenticeship on Potehi (Chinese Glove Puppetry) with one of the few remaining Potehi troupes in Penang, admits it was challenging at first to practise the concept, but with extensive research and lots of “testing”, they managed to adapt to it along their journey in making the show.

“It was difficult in the beginning because we were so used to the buy-to-make way,” he says.

But the beauty of the shadows that the materials allowed them to create, especially plastic, encouraged them to continue, Tan interjects.

“The main character of plastic is that it creates beautiful images through the reflection and refraction of light. This is why we started to fall in love with creating shadows, using different shapes, designs, textures of plastic products that can easily be found in our daily lives,” says Tan, noting that they were able to create two types of shadows in the show based on these materials: opaque shadows and translucent shadows.

As the show’s title suggests, she asserts, they want to remain true to the original shape and character of the plastic materials.

Tan, who is also a visual artist, concedes that she has always loved using recycled items and waste materials in her installations and other artworks.

“I believe that everything is uniquely different,” she says.

Low’s magic

This seems to be something that the rest of the crew – technical coordinator and puppeteer Low Zhi Kai as well as fellow puppeteers Ch’ng Yee Von and Jason Ong – believe in.

Low, who made his debut as a puppeteer after his interest in puppetry was sparked when he got involved in puppet shows Sang Kancil & Tapir and Wayang Time, which used wayang kulit and Chinese puppetry, says the recycling element makes Plastic City special for him.

“There’s a saying that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. With Plastic City we try to find a value in everything around us. And true, we found that something might be a waste product for others but it is a gem for us,” says Low.

​The 118th birth anniversary of National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam is being observed across the country today in a befitting manner.

Born on May 25, 1899, at village Churulia in Burdwan district of West Bengal in India, Nazrul through his fiery poems had inspired people to fight against injustice and repression of the colonial rule.

The government and different socio-cultural and political organisations have taken elaborate programmes to observe the day.

This year, the central programme of Nazrul’s birth anniversary will be held at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital at 3:30pm.

President Abdul Hamid is scheduled to attend the inaugural session as chief guest.

The inaugural ceremony will be chaired by Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor while Nazrul Institute trustee board president Professor Rafiqul Islam and poet’s granddaughter Khilkhil Kazi will be present as special guests.

The theme for this year’s birth anniversary celebrations of the poet has been styled as “Anti-colonialism and Anti-imperialism Soldier Nazrul”.

Professor Soumitra Shekhar of Dhaka University will deliver a memorial lecture on the theme at the inaugural session to be followed by a colourful cultural event.

The Cultural Affairs Ministry and its associate organisations will pay tributes to the poet placing wreaths at his grave located beside the Central Mosque of Dhaka University.

Besides, Dhaka University is organising a daylong programme to celebrate the 118th birth anniversary of National Poet.

The Rabindra-Nazrul cultural festival will be organised at 7pm under the auspices of Dhaka University Club on its premises.

Nazrul Institute and Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy are also scheduled to hold discussions and cultural programmes on the day.

Nazrul Institute will organise an exhibition on the day showcasing his books, memorial posters and souvenirs.

The birth anniversary of the poet will also be celebrated at Trishal in Mymensingh, Daulatpur in Comilla and Chittagong with due respect by the local administrations.

Different educational institutions across the country as well as all the Bangladeshi embassies abroad will also observe the day.

Newspapers will publish special supplements and Bangladesh television and Bangladesh Betar will broadcast various programmes on this occasion.

Three women gracefully kneaded wet clay into the shape of water jugs, the contours of which resembled the curves of female bodies.

As the craftswomen from Kasongan village in Bantul, Yogyakarta finished their work, some 80 dancers took turns performing fragments of women’s lives on the clay-wet stage.

The scenes were presented on the muddy stage built in front of the mansion of a Javanese prince erected in 1895 during the reign of Sultan Hamengku Buwono VII.

In between the craftswomen and the building, choreographer Setyastuti displayed her dance drama in the Dalem Pugeran area of Yogyakarta.

In the piece, titled Ritus Lampah Lemah (The Earth Walk Rite), she showcased a cycle of women’s struggle for survival, portraying how women, regarded as weak owing to their grace and beauty, possess amazing inherent power.

Her contemporary creation derived the spirit of Bedhaya Gandrung Manis, a classical composition by Sultan Hamengku Buwono VII, and of the craftswomen’s accomplishment and perseverance in Kasongan.

In the dance, the two blended into one.

With the mansion as the background and the craftswomen in the foreground, Ritus Lampah Lemah combined music, dance, theatre and video mapping.

Lemah, meaning earth in Javanese, was represented by the open stage with the wet clay ground.

Lemah, which also means weak, was shown in refined and gracious movements emanating an extraordinary force of attraction.

The softness, charm and elegance of women, symbolized in the dance by long hair and appealing body lines, were depicted to generate power.

“Women’s beauty is related to earth or lemah in Javanese, a connotative and interesting word to talk about women. But are Javanese women so weak that they’re frequently referred to as suwarga nunut neraka katut or merely following their spouses? This is what we wish to reveal in the performance,” said Setyastuti.

To the accompaniment of gamelan, wind instruments and DJ music, women’s roles were described one by one – from pregnancy, delivery, child care and education, performing family and household duties to maintaining social relations.

“All of the roles show the superiority of so-called weak women. Today women have the same rights as men, including in jobs,” she says.

Citing an example, she pointed to the women in Kasongan village. For them, beauty isn’t just defined by shining hair, fair skin and other such appearances.

Although they get dipped in mud, they retain their charm in handling their creative job for art as well as for the fulfillment of family needs.

Artist Djaduk Ferianto, who has a role as a resource person in this dance drama, said that despite the show’s quality, he felt pleased with the performance as it showed appreciation and support for contemporary art by the Yogyakarta regional administration.

“This indicates that art is no longer seen with disfavor by cultural authorities, which is also my experience in the annual Ngayogjazz musical event,” he said.

Yogyakarta State University lecturer Suminto A. Sayuti was happy to see contemporary art getting the space within Yogyakarta’s cultural arena.

“This project is actually intended to announce that Yogyakarta is not, or not always, synonymous with classical art. It is an open site and place where different artistic and esthetic ideologies meet, but the two eventually join hands to bring about Yogyakarta’s character,” he said.

Ritus Lampah Lemah established that, in this case, Javanese women play crucial roles in their families and in society.

The women’s presence is like earth or soil that provides water resources and enables the growth of living organisms, where humans also maintain their survival – never just being relegated to secondary rank or merely considered konco wingking (lesser partners) as Javanese men have so long held.

Justin Bieber, who allegedly lip-synced his Mumbai concert last week and was reprimanded for his unruly behaviour towards fans, is under fire for another goof.

Bieber has more reasons to say “Sorry” again: during a live performance at a nightclub in New York City, he forgot the lyrics to his own song.

While singing “Despacito”, his chart-topping Spanish song with which he collaborated with Puerto Rican artists Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, he forgot the lyrics and improvised it, TMZ reported.

Instead of singing “Nos vamos pegando, poquito a poquito (We’re sticking together, little by little),” Bieber chanted, “Nos vamos pegando, I quit smoking ciggies.”

In another line, instead of “Firmo en las paredes de tu laberinto (I sign the walls of your labyrinth)” he replaced it with the gibberish, “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”

Apparently, Bieber, 23, is exhibiting tepid relations with “Beliebers” during his “Purpose” world tour last year and in the past few months.

Shortly after his concert in Norway last September, he shrugged off fans’ requests to take a selfie with him and said that they “sucked.”

A month later, he was slammed for walking out during a gig in England, after ordering fans to “shut up” and quit yelling at him.

Just recently, Bieber failed to impress concertgoers after allegedly lip-syncing some tracks during his Mumbai gig.

​IC and its vocalist Myo Gyi performing at a music show.

One of the famous music bands of Myanmar “Iron Cross” (IC) will hold a music concert in Singapore on June 25.

Together with the band, vocalists from Iron Cross Ah Nge, lay Phjyu, Myo Gyi and Wai Wai will participate in the concert.

The concert will be held in Fort Gate in Singapore.

Tickets are being sold and those who buy tickets before June 11 will get a discount as well as a t-shirt.

Information concerning the concert can be obtained at the social media page of We Love IC Fans Group.

IC held a concert this year in Mandalay during Thingyan.

IC and its vocalists have also planned to stage their shows in other cities after this Singapore show.

Poet Omar Perez, the son of the late Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, visited Korea to attend the Seoul International Literature Forum on Tuesday, according to reports.

Perez, 53, spoke at a session titled “Us and Others” at the event, hosted by the Daesan Culture Foundation.

The poet said that misunderstanding between people rises when one is unable to clearly express one’s thoughts. “We need to foster the ability to express our thoughts as they are,” he said.

Also a percussionist, Perez participated in an improvised performance with a Korean jazz band at an evening event at the Jongno-gu KT Building in Seoul.

Perez received Cuba’s Nicolas Guillen Prize for Poetry and the National Critics’ Prize. His work has been featured in anthologies. A former member of the Cuban intellectual group Paideia, Perez was born and raised in Havana. He still resides there.

New York – More than a year after a long-mulled reunion finally materialized, rock greats Guns N’ Roses on Thursday extended their tour in North America again.

The group – which starts a European leg in Ireland on Saturday after hitting the Americas and Asia – announced an additional 15 shows to already scheduled dates in the United States and Canada this year.

The new concerts include two nights at Madison Square Garden in New York and will close with shows on November 24 and 25 in Los Angeles, the band’s home base.

Guns N’ Roses, led by Axl Rose’s raw, sweeping voice coupled with Slash’s intricate guitar, still hold the record for the top-selling debut album in US history, 1987’s “Appetite for Destruction.”

But the band also became notorious for off-stage drama, often turning up on stage hours late, and Rose and Slash parted ways in 1993 after closing a tour in Buenos Aires.

The long-distant pair reunited in April 2016 before headlining the Coachella festival in California.

However, the classic lineup still lacks rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, who co-wrote many Guns N Roses’ hits but complained about the payment offered to join the reunion.

Guns N’ Roses grossed more than US$188 million (S$260 million) worldwide by touring last year, trailing only Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce and Coldplay, according to the industry publication Pollstar.