Warwick MNight 2016- Kampung Melur

Warwick Malaysian Night 2016- Kampung Melur is a Malaysian Night (MNight) run by the Warwick Malaysian Student Association on 19th March 2016. This is a musical MNight with all original songs and tracks that tells the story of a young boy named Adam and his struggles of growing up with his family sometime during the Japanese invasion during the WWII era.

Blurb
In British colonial era Malaysia, Adam, an ambitious teenager stuck in the rigidly traditional village of Kampung Melur seeks to fill his mundane life with energy and zeal. But no success comes without cost. Behind him stands his caring family who feel that his ambitions comes at the expense of spending time with them. Will Adam understand the true value of family relationships before it is too late?

Characters

 * Adam- protagonist. Intended to be future chief of Kampung Melur.
 * Christine- Adam's older sister.
 * Mama- Mother of Adam and Christine.
 * Papa- Father of Adam and Christine. Chief of Kampung Melur
 * General- A Japanese general.
 * Nina's Father- Chief of Kampung Bahagia
 * Nina- Friend of Adam

Act I
1941

The play opens with the villages of Kampung Melur having a kenduri. Adam, the chief's son, is frustrated with his current situation as he feels that his parents are too restrictive in letting him explore the world. He discusses his situation with a few friends and Christine, but they tell him that he should put his family first and try to understand them. After the kenduri, an aunt of the family comes by to visit. However, Adam is not present when he is expected to causing an argument to erupt when he comes back about his behaviour. He ends up promising them that he will change.

In another village, the General has finished conquering the village and is appalled at the attitude of the local people. She offers the locals a chance to join them, but it is not known what happened. After a few days, news of this conquest has travelled to Kampung Melur. Upon hearing this and Adam's continual misbehaviour against his parents, Mama forbids Adam to leave. Adam, furious, tries to reason with his parents, but eventually ends us snapping at them and running away from home.

Act II
The chief of the Kampung Bahagia, Nina's father, is having his birthday celebrated by his villagers. To prepare for this, Nina's father, instructs Nina to go to the forest with a few villagers to pluck some chilli. As Nina enters the forest, she encounters bandits along the way. She is saved by Adam and thanks him by inviting him to go to Kampung Bahagia. When he arrives, Adam, wishing to keep his flight from Melur a secret, introduces himself as a traveller. He is introduced to the village and is welcomed to stay there due to the danger of the Japanese invasion

The General has finished conquering the villages nearby and is wondering where to head off to next. An informant comes in and tells her that Adam has left Melur and caused a scramble in the village's defense as they try to search for him. They decide to seize this opportunity and attack Kampung Melur and try to capture Adam.

While at Bahagia, Adam and Nina discuss their thoughts from family and from this, Adam reveals the truth about what is going on. Nina relates to him her her own ideas of family and persuades him to go back. But on the way, he encounters Christine who tells him that the village has been attacked and that Mama and Papa are killed by the General. Adam laments his decision, but Christine passes on their last message of love and regrets to Adam and Adam is consoled. They decide to head back to Bahagia to see what to do next. They relay all that has happened and discuss their next plan of action, which is to attack the Japanese to avoid being surprised by them.

On the day of the assault, Adam and Christine go in and confront the General. After a brief discussion and Adam refusing General's offering to enlist him, the General then reveals the trap that she has set for Adam and plans to kill Adam, but Christine saves him, dying in his stead. Adam then proceeds to defend his life and take revenge, culminating in the murder of the General. The villagers come in and tell Adam that the guards have been alerted to their presence and that their chance of escaping are low. To buy them time, Adam sacrifices himself choosing to make amends for the deeds he committed.

Dance
The traditional dances in the play consists of a Malay-inspired dance, an Indian dance and a contemporary dance. In all cases, the play attempts to integrate the dances into the play's integral structure and is accompanied by original music. In addition to that, many of the original songs have some basic choreography attached to it as well. An illustration of this can be seen below:

Dikir Barat
Warwick's dikir barat team of 2016 participated both within the play and separately at the end of the show. The ensemble consisted of twenty to thirty players, four singers as well as four percussionists on the kompang doubling on the gong when necessary. Within the play, the dikir barat played the traditional role of. At the end, an exhibition of different forms is given including choreography to new songs.

Music
As this is a musical, the performance includes many original songs, dance accompaniment as well as an original background soundtrack. The music was played by a small band consisting of a piano, an electric bass and percussion consisting of an extended drum kit.

Set Design and Props
The main set consists of the partial exterior frame of a house, covered with a painted canvas backdrop to imitate a wooden wall. Flanking the centre backdrop in both sides are two movable canvases about 0.5m hand-painted depicting rice paddies. The stage curtain was furthermore used as an integral part of stage design as transitions in the play were cued by the rising and falling of curtains.