Review of Al-Ikhlas (A monologue in 7 acts re-introducing God)

Last night, on the 28th January 2010, I attended a special theatrical performance by Gene Sha Rudyn at the Abdul Gafoor Mosque. His theme revolves around the One-ness of God, from the Islamic point of view. The performance is open to the public. In attendance are both Muslim & Non-Muslim members of the public.

This performance is part of a series of events organised by the “Berita Harian 2 – Utusan Melayu *Daily News – The Malay Courier”. It has been described as follows,”… An event-based exhibition taking place from 12 January to 5 February 2010, Berita Harian 2 – Utusan Melayu; the surreal, the contemporeal, the cosmoreal features nine ‘progressive’ contemporary Malay artists of various disciplines selected by curator, Zaki Razak. The exhibition explores alternative means of artistic productions, aims to convey enquiries in regards to anthropology of ‘Melayu’and project issues that are deemed as taboos by the ‘Malay’ society. …”.

You may join the Facebook group here http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&gid=211285213172.

The Facebook event page link for this performance is http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=302703235489&ref=ss

Gene, has been described, for the purpose of this performance as, “… A common man – not a scholar nor an expert – born, raised and living in a cosmopolitan society, takes us through his eventful past and, with his limited secular education and spiritual knowledge, raises questions about God and seeks answers. …”

Gene’s delivery of the topic, starts off with the question, is it OK in the first place, to perform a theatrical performance in a mosque. He mentions that, when he started this quest, a number of people questioned the validity of theatre, in Islam. He reasons with said people, to provide the relevant citations from Quran & Practices of the Prophet (AlHadith). Having dealt with this, he proceeds to plan the layout & delivery for his performance.

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