Short + Sweet Theatre in Penang

Jackie Ashkin in Short + Sweet Theatre Malaysia

Short + Sweet Theatre is a short play format drama festival that started in Australia and has expanded throughout the Asia-Pacific region over the past 10 years. Short + Sweet incorporates original scriptwriting, acting, and directing; participants are selected through a months-long competitive process at each festival location, and then a series of 10-minute mini-plays are produced and performed by the chosen troupe. Short + Sweet came to the Penang Performing Arts Centre this year for the first time, directed by Malaysian theatre icons Faridah Merican and Joe Hasham. Short + Sweet bills itself as "The Biggest Little Festival in the World" - short play festival that is - with four nights of performances at PPAC, September 12 through September 15. Last night, Friday, an engaged and responsive audience packed the house.

Smart Phones Stupid People

Jackie [Ashkin] was chosen as both a playwright and as an actor; easily the youngest writer in the bunch and also one of the youngest actors (some of the competitors included university professors!). Her script Smart Phones Stupid People got a ton of laughs with its outrageous direction by Dr. Shark and hilarious Malaysian-style comedy acting by Nik Ahmad Aiman bin Nik Kamaluddin and Timmy Ong. A 10-minute comedy about a technology-crazy couple driving through the African savannah and wanting to take a Facebook profile picture on an iPad after spotting a wild animal...the point being that no matter how smart the gadgets are, they don't make stupid people any smarter. The performance embellished the original script and Jackie had her first experience with having one of her scripts produced, directed, and acted independently. Quite an experience for a 16-year-old.

Curtain Call for Smart Phones Stupid People
The Playwright, Actors, and Directo

Jackie also acted in Mark Sasse's Drive All Night, in a supporting musical comedy role alongside Joseph Stolzfus and Sarah Lim, with Amanda Khoo directing. The comedy-drama is about a man driving through the night listening to the radio as he flees a spat with his wife. Jackie got to sing and dance her way through several rapid-fire prop changes, playing a succession of late-night radio performers and announcers. She received some of the night's loudest cheers and hoots from the audience. Jackie's characters included a Boy George imitator, a bored classical music announcer, a suggestive dancer, a heavily-accented car wash promoter, and a hard-sell direct mail advertiser.

Jackie in the Spotlight

Jackie Ashkin in Drive All Night

Saturday is the closing night of Short + Sweet Theatre in Penang and the house is expected to be sold out, SRO. Jackie regrets that the run was only four nights, already missing the camaraderie and performer's rush. Short + Sweet is a great concept that offers a forum for honest, original, professionally produced theatre with a variety of roles and concepts ranging from hard-hitting social commentary to local humour. The PPAC production was extremely well done from start to finish and we are already looking forward its return next year. All those involved are highly commended.