If traveling up north to the capital city for a decent art festival can be rather tedious even for a road trip- we’ve got news for everyone, especially Johorians! The Writers and Film Festival 2017 is an 8-day literary and film spectacle that brings a newfound love and education for the arts, by bringing the best of Malaysia and artists from around the world to your doorstep from the 20th of to the 28th of October, 2017.

On a damp Wednesday night, Kuala Lumpur’s Performing Arts Centre (KLPAC) presented a production by KL Shakespeare Players. Parking was fickle business but once we got that sorted, we got ourselves comfy with drinks to warm us up. Waiting for the doors to Pentas 2 to open, my friends noted that they have not seen a version or adaptation of tonight’s play. The Shakespeare Demystified series has been running for a few years now but tonight the thespians are acting out Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth. With ticket prices going from RM45 to RM55, I was excited to see if the play is going to be enjoyable.

Shakespeare Demystified’s run on Macbeth this year opened late April in Penang and continued their run in KL starting May 2nd. As usual, the production aims for minimalism on their props and set, playing with audience’s imagination and interpretation.

Despite its many pitfalls, 2016 has given us such a brilliant collection of performance art it would be an almost fruitless (or at best, tedious) pursuit to try and rank them or pick definite favourites.