The seventeenth play to hit Studio RS this year is Hariry Jalil’s nostalgic ‘Le Jeu La Julia’

IS this decade-old collective the busiest Malaysian theatre company this year? With new shows every week, Studio RS at Bandar Utama has been busy around the clock providing a platform for young voices to debut untested work and even a magic show.

‘s playspace may be small — accommodating at most 40 audience members comfortably — but it’s an intimate performance area which has hosted plenty this year.

But out of 16 productions presented at the studio so far in 2016, only Arshad Adam‘s THISability was by the company. This was apparent to some extent from the fluctuating quality on display in its Projek Bilik Sempit series. Artistic director Khairunazwan Rodzy‘s air tangan is often missed.

But fret not, he returns to the director’s chair for Revolution Stage’s second staging this year.

Taking on Hariry Jalil‘s Le Leu La Julia (first staged in collaboration with Seni Suri Jawi four years ago) Khairunazwan with producer Farah Kamsari have got Jubang Samat, Sherry Ghazali and Surnia Fizul starring in the teenage love story set in nineties Malaysia.

Le Jeu La Julia follows three teenagers in school some time before the internet reached the Malaysian mainstream.

Julia, Jalut and Fadhlun are students in a special secondary-school program dedicated to high-scoring UPSR students who could not get into the state’s sekolah asrama penuh. After studying in the same class for over three forms, they develop feelings for one another. But bear in mind this is teenage romance pre-3G, when there were no Whatsapp or smartphone emojis.

Writer and director Hariry Jalil (Beng Hock, Surat Sabariah) debuted Le Jeu La Julia in a joint effort with Revolution Stage at Kakiseni‘s now-defunct Freespace on 5 December 2012. During its initial four-day run, it was led by Nurbaya Hassan, Wanji Zain and Azrul Azizi Amirul. This is the first staging of the play since.

The script meanwhile is the first installation in the author’s trilogy on women. It is succeeded by Selamat Hari Natal Natalie (Teater Negri Samudra, 2013) which revolves around the mysterious Natalie who aligns herself with a group of rebels, and Surat Sabariah (Teater Negri Samudra, 2014), a reimagining of P. Ramlee‘s Ibu Mertua-ku led by Sherie Merlis and Azman Hassan when it premiered at DPAC to strong acclaim.

Le Jeu La Julia opens tomorrow and will run until this Sunday.

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Studio RS is located on 5-11, Dataran Pelangi Utama, One Avenue, Bandar Utama! Tickets are priced at RM20 and can be booked via text message to Cahaya at . For more information, head over to !