The Toughest Audience in my Experience of Watching Theater

Pernah dengar ungkapan “what a tough audience”? Bila tengok sesuatu performance misalnya, audience tu kita boleh rate mengikut berapa mudah mereka menerima persembahan dan memberi expected response. Expected response ni daripada produksi tu la kan.

Contohnya kalau produksi tu buat show komedi, expected response ialah audience terhibur, bergelak ketawa, huhahuha. Kalau buat show sedih, of course expected response will be penonton rasa sedih juga, mungkin menangis atau mengalir air mata sedih, atau tersedu-sedan, tersiuk-siuk ke apa ke.

Jarang la kan kau buat show komedi, tapi kau expect audience menangis. Kau dah kenapa eh?

So, let’s say, produksi ni buat show komedi, lepas tu the audience member tak gelak. Dia jatuh antara dua perkara: 1) Boleh jadi komedi tu tak sampai, dia mcm kelakar, tapi hanya di mata produksi tu je, atau 2) Memang kelakar, tapi audience sejenis yang ketat dan mungkin threshold kelakar audience tu tinggi betul.

In the second case, ini yang kita boleh kata sebagai tough audience. And usually benda ni dibuat secara collective. So, let’s say kalau ada 2-3 audience yang threshold komedi dia tinggi betul, tapi the rest or the majority respond according to the production’s expectation, dia tak dicop sebagai tough audience. 2-3 ketul tu je yg tough.

This does not only apply to comedy, boleh juga apply ke genre atau jenis lain. Contoh, cerita sedih. Dapat-dapat set audience yang tak terasa langsung dengan kesedihan yang nak disampaikan. Worse, kalau dapat yang jenis masa moment sedih, audience bantai gelak. Tu pun kira tough, sebab mereka tak memberi response as what is expected. Mungkin sebab threshold sedih mereka pun tinggi.

Dalam pengalaman Malaysia (cehhh lahhh pengalaman, yang tak berapa pun sebenarnya, tapi kau layan je la eh), ada satu kes di mana produksi ni menerima the toughest audience ever. So far yang Malaysia pernah pergi and experience la. Produksi yang dimaksudkan ialah…

…

Racun Between Us by Parallact Art. Specifically their last matinee show, 8 Sep, 3.30PM.

Why?

Sebab masa tu, Malaysia pergi. No la, not that. Sebab masa tu, yes, Malaysia pergi, but more importantly, ada 3 je penonton masa tu. Tapi, it’s not just about the amount of audience, it’s about whom. The audience bertiga tersebut ialah Malaysia, Abg Wan from Revolution Stage and Yusof Bakar, all the way from penang.

Ok, sebelum apa-apa, let me disclose, performance mereka baik, persembahan dan energy mereka kena tempat, kena gaya. Bila part comedy tu kelakar, bukan mcm krik2. So, it’s not their fault. Bukannya mereka tak deliver ke apa.

So, it’s the audiences’ fault la eh?

Ish, tak jugak la kot. Well sebab Malaysia part of the audience, takkan la nak cakap Malaysia antara yang bersalah kan? Hahaha. 

It’s nobody’s fault la. It just so happened show tu mereka dapat this combo of 3 teging people. 

Ok la, I can’t speak on behalf of Abg Wan and Yusof Bakar, sama ada mereka enjoy or not the show. But here’s the fact. 

1. I enjoyed the show, and their performance were adequate.

2. I boleh terima part komedi yang disampaikan. Sebab dia bukan cerita komedi, tapi ada unsur komedi. 

3. Emosi yang disampaikan pelakon kena tempat, dan bagi Malaysia, memadai.

However, why I said this 3 combo is the toughest audience. Sebab throughout the show, none of us (or as it appeared to me) expressed or responded according to what normally expected in such show.

Kami je bertiga masa tu audience. And kami tak duduk sekali, tak duduk bersebelahan. Yang Malaysia ingat, I sat in the front row seat, Abg Wan sat behind me, selang satu row i think. And Yusof Bakar sat across the room, front row seat juga.

So kat situ, mmg takde upaya untuk kami bertiga bertukar-tukar nota atau you know to have that collective synergy to react to their performance.

To make it worse (sort of), to those yang tak tahu, Malaysia ni kalau tengok show, muka mcm takde perasaan, especially kalau komedi. It’s not that my threshold for humour tinggi, tak pun. Malaysia mudah terhibur. Cuma, maybe my mindset bila tengok show, I will suppress my feeling, supaya Malaysia tak be expressive. Why? Sebab I don’t want to cloud my thought with my own laughter. And also because by doing so, I can observe and absorb more either from the performers or from the audience.

Serious, serious, even contoh mcm Muzikal Banglo Bahadur by The Seven Idiots awal Nov ni, they’re very funny, hilarious, but I suppress my laughter. Ask Fahim, who sat beside me. But they’re so funny, I smiled and there are parts yg buat Malaysia mcm nak tergelak fizikal juga. 

And, to make it even worse, Abg Wan and Yusof Bakar apparently tak beri reaction sangat pun. Maybe sebab sikit sangat audience so mcm, weird untuk gelak2 bertiga je. Atau boleh jadi because they’re somebody in the theatre scene, they are teachers by nature, so mungkin bila mereka tengok show pun mereka mcm treat it like a sesi penjurian ke apa ke.

So yeah, the only 3 audiences for that matinee show, tiga-tiga teging and tak react expressively. I felt bersalah la jugak sebenarnya, sebab kau bayangkan mereka cuba deliver the humour and like no reaction whatsoever from the audience. Kalau Malaysia yang perform, koyak la jugak weyh. Like, apa salah aku? Tak kelakar ke.

But here’s the good thing, they persevered, they continued to deliver. Lantak pi la kau nak teging ke, kau tak ketawa, they continue performing, waima 3 orang je audience. The first few humour deliveries, walaupun tak dapat response yang baik from audience, tak menjatuhkan morale mereka untuk continue deliver the rest of the humour elements. 

So, kepada casts of Racun Between Us, especially Azizi Nazril and Dai Fuad (sebab mereka bawa watak yang bawa unsur komedi to dilute the conflicts between the other 2 characters, lakonan Ron Isa and Sara Sulaiman), and also to the production, personally, I am sorry.

It’s not that I was trying to be a very bad audience atau nak jatuhkan morale you all, tapi, yeah, Malaysia tak berapa expressive bila menonton apa-apa show. Tapi itu bukanlah bermakna performance you all suam-suam kuku or teruk. It’s an unfortunate case of dapat audience yang tak berapa nak expressive. 

Dah la audience masa tu tiga je, haram sepatah bunyi pun tak keluar. Tapi kat situ nampak la mereka (the production) sangat baik. Mereka tak turunkan energy mereka waima audience mcm tak support langsung.

So, kepada produksi-produksi luar, yang nak buat show, beberapa iktibar boleh diambil:

1. Dapatkan jumlah penonton yang sedap supaya ada that collective synergy that can react back to your performance.

2. And it’s not just about the amount, but also the constituents of the audience. Kena ada good mixture. Kalau kau ada 100 audience tapi kesemua 100 jenis tak expressive pun tak boleh juga eh.

3. Terus beri energy persembahan regardless kau dapat audience teging. 

4. Kalau nak try ketahanan mental/morale bila buat persembahan terutamanya komedi, boleh la try perform and jemput kami bertiga je. Kalau you all mampu terus deliver the way Parallact Art did, kiranya kalian ada ketahanan mental/morale yang baik. Lahhh.

Itu la “toughest audience”. Risau jugak tau kalau dapat audience yang teging, as an audience pun Malaysia risau sebab, Malaysia personally pun depends on other audience members to be expressive. Dia mcm konsep fardhu kifayah, beban atau tanggungjawab Malaysia to respond accordingly hilang jika ada mereka dalam kelompok audience yang telah berbuat demikian.