By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, July 15: A dance theatre titled ‘Kembara Datu Marapati Raja Negeri Santubong’ (The Adventures of Datu Marapati King of Santubong) will premieres at 8pm on July 22 in conjunction with the Sarawak Day celebrations.
It will be broadcast on Amanah Khairat Yayasan Budaya Melayu Sarawak’s (AKYBMS) Facebook and YouTube channels.
The theatre performance tells the story of the adventure of Datu Marapati who became the king of the State of Santubong which led to a list of descendants who ruled the State of Sarawak in the past until the arrival of James Brooke.
AKYBMS board member Datuk Abdul Wahab Aziz said the theatre performance will highlight the cultural arts of the Malay rulers and palace as well as the cultural diversity of the Malays in Sarawak.
“The theatre will display elements of Sarawak Malay culture such as the tradition of Malay Islamic Monarchy, Sarawak Malay civilisation, traditional Malay poetry, Sarawak Malay dance art and the Sarawak Malay heroism or silat.
“It is a collaboration programme of AKYBMS with the Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) with arts and culture activists from local non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Sarawak MPs and assemblymen and interested individuals,” he said at a press conference held at AKYBMS building, Rodway Road here today.
Meanwhile, AKYBMS general manager Datu Dr Sanib Said said the script was done by Azuan Jemat from the Culture and Research Division of AKYBMS while the recording of the theatre performance took place in Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He also mentioned that theatre performance is based on real life historical events extracted from written sources and manuscripts such as ‘Hikayat Datuk Marapati’ written by Mohammad Tahir Abdul Ghani and Santubong poetry manuscripts dated as early as 1885. — DayakDaily
