Visitors and festivalgoers captivated by the 1886 Building on Beach Street, brought to life with vibrant colours and digital art during last year's George Town Festival (GTF) in Penang. This year's GTF runs from July 19-28. Photo: The Star/Filepic
The George Town Festival (GTF) is back, inviting festival-goers from July 19-28 to immerse themselves in the present moment. This vibrant arts event, now in its 15th edition, involves the wider community in Penang and beyond with a diverse line-up of over 80 activities, including performances, workshops, and exhibitions, creating a shared cultural experience for all to see, do, and enjoy.
Featuring a blend of local and international talent, the festival programme presents a variety of free and ticketed events, ensuring there’s something for everyone to enjoy.
This year, theatre practitioner Ling Tang steps into the role of GTF artistic director. Together with her team, she aims to craft a festival that goes beyond showcasing artistic excellence, striving to make a meaningful impact on society and foster a deeper connection within the community.
“Our vision for GTF over the two years we’re contracted to organise it is to explore the possibilities and expand everyone’s imagination of what an art festival can be. We seek to create an inclusive, dynamic festival that celebrates creativity and connects people through the universal language of the arts,” says Tang.
Crowds gathered at an outdoor venue in Batu Kawan on the Penang mainland last year to enjoy a pre-festival concert. Photo: Filepic/The Star
As a homegrown festival crafted by Malaysians for Malaysians, GTF aims to encourage active participation rather than passive spectating.
When it launches, GTF will be taking over living spaces, commercial spaces and public spaces within the George Town heritage zone, such as Hin Bus Depot, Sia Boey Urban Archaeological Park and Jetty35, and turning them into arts and culture spaces.
“By transforming the heritage site into an artistic paradise, visitors can easily walk to different event locations and immerse themselves in the vibrant festival atmosphere. You will see performances and exhibitions taking place in cafes and restaurants, and familiar streets will become site-specific performance locations. We imagine the entire city as a stage, with art happening everywhere,” says Tang.
In an effort to bring art into the lives of the local community, GTF invited US puppet theatre troupe BoxCutter Collective, renowned for its community theatre, to join its community outreach programme.
‘We imagine the entire city as a stage, with art happening everywhere,’ says Ling Tang. Photo: George Town Festival
The project is a mentor-mentee initiative, where the BoxCutter Collective will work together with Malaysian artists to share the art of giant puppetry with the communities of Taman Sri Janggus and Bukit Tambun.
GTF also ran an artist-in-residence programme, where artists were selected to live in George Town for a month or two between March and June.
Malaysian artists Ally Rushdy and Chin Pik Wun, as well as Charuwan Noprumpha from Thailand and Juan Arminandi from Indonesia were chosen from the open call, which drew 87 applications from 29 countries, encompassing a diverse range of disciplines, including photography, theatre, digital art, literary translation and instrument building.
During their residency, the selected artists were able to form their own unique interpretations of the city, each viewing the city through a different lens and responding to the festival’s overarching theme, "Here & Now".
A digital art exhibition seen at the George Town Festival last year. Photo: Filepic/The Star
Tang says that while GTF aims to bring a varied range of artistic perspectives to the festival and provide a platform for cross-cultural exchange, it is also striving to reflect the diversity of Malaysian society in the domestic line-up.
“We have carefully selected works that are relevant and resonate with current global issues, because not only do we want to entertain, but we also want to provoke thought and offer forward-looking perspectives,” she says.
Up to 150,000 people are expected to join the festivities throughout the 10-day event.
Mark your calendar: GTF highlights
The festival’s exciting programme includes five standout shows that transcend language barriers, inviting audiences to explore the boundless possibilities of the performing arts. These feature performances span Jingju theatre (Peking opera), contemporary theatre, dance theatre, visual theatre, and mime, offering a rich tapestry of cultural and artistic expression. Take your pick:
Loke Soh Kim’s 'A World In The City,' first presented in Penang in 1994, returns to George Town for its 30th anniversary as a full-length dance performance. Kongsi Petak reworks the original with a new lineup of dancers to address current contexts. Photo: Taka Chang
Switchblade Operation: A World In The City – Kongsi Petak
Date and time: July 19-21, 8.30pm
Venue: Majestic Theatre
Here’s a special homecoming dance theatre show that has deep connections with George Town. Penang-born dancer-choreographer Loke Soh Kim’s A World In The City production, which was first presented at Dewan Sri Pinang in 1994, returns to George Town for its 30-year anniversary as a full-length hour-long dance performance at GTF 2024. The acclaimed performance, which is a reflection on our consumption-driven modern lifestyle, has been reworked to respond to current contexts with a new line-up of dancers.
'Double Bill Of Jingju Magic' – GuoGuang Opera Company (Taiwan)
Date and time: July 20 and 21, 2.30pm
Venue: Dewan Budaya USM
Language: Mandarin, with English and Mandarin subtitles
Jingju, also known as Beijing opera or Peking opera, is a form of traditional Chinese theatre that blends singing, dance, music, literature, martial arts, acrobatics, painting and sculpture.
Double Bill Of Jingju Magic is a theatre performance consisting of two classic opera excerpts, Avenging Zidu and Zhuangzi Tests His Wife. Dubbed the “Eastern MacBeth”, Avenging Zidu is a tragic traditional opera that dramatises the damaging psychological effects of ambition and jealousy on the titular protagonist.
The play showcases the high difficulty level of martial arts in Jingju, highlighting the prowess of wusheng (male martial arts role), who perform precise acrobatic movements and stunts whilst weighed down by costume pieces.
In Zhuangzi Tests His Wife, the philosopher Zhuangzi fakes his death and tests his wife Tian’s fidelity, bringing two paper effigies to life to keep an eye on her. Both plays, through their enchanting plots, explore the paradox of life and death, right and wrong, and cause and effect.
House of Mask and Mime – House of Mask and Mime (Thailand)
Date and time: July 20 and 21; 3pm, 8.30pm
Venue: Komtar Auditorium A
In this kaleidoscopic journey through seven stories from Thailand, you will experience firsthand the evocative power of body language and the emotive force of music. House of Mask and Mime uses different types of acting – a fusion of mask, clown, mime and object theatre – to tell their tales. The performances are easily understandable and suitable for all ages, leaving children and families spellbound.
In Hombre Collettivo’s 'Alle Armi (To Arms)', audiences delve into the politics of the international arms market through a toy supermarket, using toys as the performative medium rather than words. Photo: George Town Festival
Alle Armi (To Arms) – Hombre Collettivo (Italy)
Date and time: July 26-28, 8.30pm
Venue: Auditorium P. Ramlee
Without relying on words, but instead through the performative use of toys, Alle Armi blurs the boundaries between toys and arms, exploring the pressing issue of the international arms market.
Since its 2023 premiere, the theatre show has been selected for the 2024 International Theatre Festival of Kerala (India) and International Theatre Festival Valise (Poland).
A scene from Indonesian performance collective Teater Garasi’s 'Waktu Batu. Rumah Yang Terbakar' – an interplay between stage, cinematography and video game. Photo: George Town Festival
Waktu Batu. Rumah Yang Terbakar – Teater Garasi/Garasi Performance Institute (Indonesia)
Date and time: July 27 and 28, 8.30pm
Venue: One Theatre Hall (former Penangpac Stage 1)
Language: Bahasa Indonesia, with English subtitles
Waktu Batu. Rumah Yang Terbakar (Time Stone. Our House Is On Fire) is an interplay between stage, cinematography and video game that touches on mythology, colonial history, capitalism and patriarchy in forming our ecological grief.
With a narrative based on Javanese mythology and history, Waktu Batu. Rumah Yang Terbakar invites audiences to delve into the intricate transitional situations of Indonesia’s contemporary society, rife with layers, cultural ruptures and environmental devastation.
Women’s Theatre Screening
Date: July 26-28
Venue: Digital Penang Event Hall, Bangunan Wisma Yeap Chor Ee, Pengkalan Weld
Films take the spotlight here. With the central theme of “A Woman’s Body”, this selection of five international films and four Malaysian films by female directors – including Tan Chui Mui’s I Am The Beauty Of Your Beauty, I Am The Fear of Your Fear; Annie Zaidi’s In Her Words: The Journey of Indian Women and Kamila Andini’s Before, Now & Then – focus on the Asian female perspective, shatter stereotypes and biases, and reveal the lived truth of inequality affecting women today.
There will also be panel discussions and post-screening Q&A sessions with the films’ directors to foster open dialogue and in-depth discussions, delving deep into issues like bodily autonomy, gender equality and workplace challenges. Free entry, with pre-registration.
One Zero – Ng Siu Yee and Steve Goh
Date and time: July 26-28; 2pm, 8pm
Venue: Jetty35
For those looking for an experimental event, here is an interesting collaborative project between composer Ng Siu Yee and dancer-choreographer Steve Goh.
Through this multidisciplinary performance, Ng and Goh will explore how technology has expanded the possibilities of storytelling through art. First performed in KL in 2023, One Zero aims to challenge conventional methods of showcasing and experiencing art, whilst reflecting on human nature and the fears and anxieties of our society.
Dancing In Place – MyDance Alliance
Date: July 27 and 28
Venue: Sia Boey Archaeological Park
Dancing In Place is an outdoor site-specific dance performance that uses living spaces to offer audiences a new experience of watching dance and redefine what constitutes a stage.
Audiences will be guided from one location to another to experience short dance works by six choreographers, transforming audiences’ expectations of the places they visit and showcasing how dance can happen anywhere.
As the dancers engage with Penang’s architecture and respond to the environment with their every move, audiences will bear witness to the seamless interplay between physical body and place. Free entry, with pre-registration.
