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‘The Exile from Ayodhya’: A journey through the Ramayana at Yale-NUS College
“At first glance, the text of the play seemed distant to me – it was a world where duty meant life and death, where the fate of the entire world and kingdom were at stake. But as I invested myself in the character of Dasharatha and the story, I was able to glean certain universal and timeless themes of mortality, family, and love. All in all, it felt like seeing the classic tale of the Ramayana through fresh eyes,” said Izzul Irfan (Class of 2024), who played the leading role of King Dasharatha.
Teater Ekamatra presents Baca Skrip: #AnakMelayu - Interview with Isaac Tan
Izzul Irfan: The rehearsal process has been very interesting for me as an actor because I sort of have to come up with a new vocabulary as a performer. You are playing the dual roles of both performer and technical team in a sense, because if you freeze or get cut off or your connection’s down, it’s on you to bring yourself back online and working well. So, there’s that headspace that I have had to get used to. […] the process has really been about re-learning how to reach out to the audience (when you can’t see them) and it’s been challenging but rewarding.
Podcast 76: The Runaway Company - ArtsEquator
Izzul Irfan: So that particular production saw us integrating music into the show in a very… as almost like a character in the story. So it was not necessarily songs with lyrics, but it can be like ambient music, background music, but at the same time it builds the atmosphere of the story […] Erika always says that we experimented with like, very raw music. We had very unconventional instruments. We had a bassoon, we had a bass drum. And we also used conventional instruments like violin in very interesting ways. Like we were trying to find like, if we strain the sound, how can that affect the story and how can it tell the story?
The Runaway Company - Social Space Magazine
Meet Izzul Irfan and Erika Poh, co-founders of The Runaway Company, a non-profit organisation with a vision to integrate music and theatre, through telling stories by youths, for youths. Esther Tan finds out what inspired them to pursue a craft in performance arts and how theatre can be a good platform for youths to speak out about some of the issues they are facing.