There was a marathon reading from Don Quixote at MPH 1 Utama and I volunteered myself.
Kee Thuan Chye was there to read as well - a short while before me. We listened to one or two readers (Adriana - Malaysiakini intern - read impressively in Spanish!). But customers meandered by, few curious enough to stop and find out what was happening. The fuzzy microphone didn't help matters.
The only way to do this, I said, is to ham this up as much as possible. Pull in the crowd.
Chye said, That's just what I intend to do. Don't laugh when it's my turn.
He had a long poetic soliliquy - which yes, he dramatised beautifully, bringing out all the humour and pathos. And I did laugh. Not at Chye, but at Quixote.
My extract was several pages long - and I felt ought to have been edited a bit to make it easier for an audience in passing. But I was lucky to have a very humourous extract - Don Quixote's seduction of a chamber maid with breath smelling of piccalilly whom he mistakes for a fine lady. I played it for laughs, getting really carried away. Thespian tendencies, long buried, coming to the fore.
Maybe it's time to take to the stage again?
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