“We must imagine Sisyphus happy.” – Albert Camus

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA – Ending off Theatresauce’s season, with a bumper crop of seven productions, is Sisyphus No.9, a philosophical piece told through experimental movements and music.

Directed by Tung Jit Yang, Sisyphus No.9 considers the idea of the mundane in routine. Day in, day out. The rising and setting of the sun, darkness to light. Getting stuck in traffic for 2 hours. Eat, sleep, make art. Repeat. Get older, lose friends, lose family. Eat, sleep, make art. Repeat. Meeting new people. Feeling uncomfortable. Going through it anyways. Eat, sleep, make bad art, repeat. And for what, really? Humans and our need to attribute meaning to life; yet the universe responds with unreasonable silence. How absurd.

Sisyphus No.9 was inspired by two stories – the myth of Sisyphus, and the history of composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Sisyphus who was punished by the gods to eternally roll a boulder up a hill to only have it roll down once more for him to start all over again. Meanwhile, Beethoven was at this juncture at near total deafness, composing, and eventually conducting his 9th Symphony in Vienna, Austria.

Fresh off directing Mixtape for Maz at Kongsi KL late July, director Tung Jit Yang ventures back to devising for the theatre in Sisyphus No. 9, exploring his long held obsession with the Greek myth. Times get hard, heart and body gets heavy – brevity and levity eventually arrives and yet disappears as soon as it does. “No matter,” he attempts to remind himself – as Samuel Beckett writes – “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

From silence to symphony, intertwined with the happy absurdity of labour in vain, again, again, and again… This physically-visceral movement piece is accompanied by live ambient music and clashes philosophy with reality and classical music with modern rock. Featuring multidisciplinary performing and fine artist Liew Chee Heai, accompanied with music and performance by Francoe, an ambient music duo made up of Coebar Abel and Ian Francis, with production design by Bryan Chang.

Photo Credit: Theatresauce

Sisyphus No.9 plays from 6th to 10th September 2023 at Sunway’s Rooftop Theatre at Sunway University, Bandar Sunway, 47500 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. Tickets and more information available here