JUSTIFICATION OF MAHSURI DRAMA

We chose the drama Mahsuri because of its background setting. This story reflects
our culture and will soon be forgotten by the younger generation if its not exposed from an
early age. Our main purpose of this drama is to bring back the lifestyle from our past and
exposed it to them. Throughout the play we will involve the audience as much as possible by
showing how people interact and live in a community. Besides that, we have also prepared
script and characters costumes based on the legend itself. We did a few adjustments to the
drama Mahsuri so that it will be suitable for the year 4 pupils level of vocabulary. The script
that we wrote was simple and easy to be understood. Plus, this drama will be fun and
enjoyable because we put in some classical music in the drama. For instance:
MAK ANDAK: (holding her stomach and pulling PAK ANDAKs cloths) Dear, please call the
midwife! I am going to give birth! (Moaning)
PAK ANDAK: (getting up and tightens his pelekat) Hold on! Ill get the midwife! (Walking).
As we can see from the examples above, the language is very simple and easy to
be understood. Furthermore, year 4 pupils are considered more mature to understand the
true meaning of the drama and they could effortlessly pick up the moral values in the drama.
Some of the moral values include love for the family, patriotism and to never prejudice
towards others. Young children can reflect and apply what they have seen in the drama into
their daily life. Moreover, it is true that we think the drama is quite heavy for the pupils to
understand the exact meaning but as we progressed, we felt that we can make the pupils
understand the drama with a much simpler script in order for them to keep in track with the
storyline.
Another point that we would like to talk about is the culture. In the drama Mahsuri, we
can clearly see the culture of classical Malay and their way of life that is slightly different
from nowadays. Pupils can acquire something new and learn about their history or even the
history of Malaysia. In the costumes that we presented, we clearly stated our intentions to
expose the cultures of Langkawi to the pupils. As an example, Mahsuri and her familys attire
resemble the peoples in the past. In the past, most pupils would wear traditional clothes
such as baju kebaya and baju melayu everywhere they went while in our time, everyone will
be clad in either a casual wear like t-shirts and pants in their daily basis. Additionally, in our
play, Mahsuris elegance and gestures are some of the example on the culture of Langkawi.
The background of the target audience is from an urban area. Some of the props and
clothes present in the drama may not be familiar to them. Thus, it will be such a great
JUSTIFICATION OF MAHSURI DRAMA
opportunity for them to explore with us in the drama. They can also clearly see in front of
their eyes the props such as spear and keris which is typical weapon in the old days. These
types of weapons can only be seen in museums. Thats why our drama greatly uses these
weapons throughout the drama. We want to capture pupils attention and interest in getting
involved along with us.