City Festival 2010-Salusuah, an original theatre solo

"Very elegant production, aesthetically pleasing and spiritually uplifting. Such moving tenderness". That was how member of the audience, Marge, described Salusuah. Indeed, it was beautiful. The solo actor, Gani Abdul Karim, moved and sang, shrouded in the dense darkness of a bare stage. Lit starkly by a single spotlight, Gani weaved in and out of the darkness, as if a Zakii Anwar painting had come to life.

A semi-autobiographical theatre piece on Gani's struggles in discovering his personal identity, the scenes were filled with tension and unease. His mental battle was bared for all to see, and even reach points of 'near madness', as another audience member recounted. However, these fiery scenes were contrasted with scenes of soothing arabic singing and meditative movements.

The piece was tied together with multimedia projections, sometimes text to tell the story, sometimes haunting images of Gani himself.

There was something calming about watching Gani re-enact the Islamic rituals of cleaning and washing, as if to cleanse the soul.

And as he doused himself from head to toe in water and re-emerged again, his journey seemed complete.

The show never provides us with a definitive resolution. But everyone takes away something different. We leave with lots of questions in our minds. But these are questions that Gani and his crew cannot answer. These are questions that only we can answer ourselves.