Mitch Albom’s successful 1997 New York Times bestseller, ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’, a memoir about his favourite college professor, gave the US novelist worldwide critical acclaim. Albom then released ‘The Five People You Meet In Heaven’ in 2003. The story was about an 83-year-old amusement park worker, Eddie, who was killed while saving a young child, and goes to heaven where he meets five people who he had crossed paths with while alive: A man from his childhood; his captain from the war; his lady employer; his beloved wife; and a young girl whom the 83-year-old unknowingly murdered while at war. Each has a lesson to teach Eddie through various significant events that happened while he was alive, and eventually helps him come to terms with his own mortality.

This predictable yet inspiring narration has emotionally moved many. One in particular is Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac)’s resident Director-in-training, Helena Foo. “I read the book a year ago and found his concept of afterlife very intriguing. He sees heaven not as a place but an answer to the meaning of life and our existence,” the graduate from Sunway University College’s Department of Performance and Media explains.

Influenced by her fascination with the New York bestseller, Helena settled on exploring the concept of afterlife and the subjective perception of heaven, and created ‘Three.’. Unlike the book, the stage performance is about a girl who rediscovers herself in the afterlife. ‘What you will be seeing on stage is only one of the many ideas of what heaven is like. What’s your idea?’

The play provokes audiences to ponder our existence. Did we make a difference? Are we proud of our contributions? Or, do we regret not doing enough when looking back into the past? These questions are raised at the beginning of the play, which may seem odd, but Albom himself sums it up well. ‘It might seem strange to start a story with an ending. But all endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time…’

Moving away from typical theatre productions in Malaysia, Helena offers a physical theatre performance. ‘Physical theatre is a performance that pursues storytelling through primarily physical means. The body is used to create dialogue, form objects, make up scenes and many other things. It’s usually applied in practitioners’ contemporary dance, theatre acrobatic and mime performances. Although some forms of physical theatre utilise text, its main focus is the physical work expressed through movements. It’s a highly visual form of theatre open to the audience’s interpretations.’

This may be daunting but Helena and her team, movement director Kerry-Ann Khoo and composer Nic k Davis have faced the challenges head on. “For a performance without dialogue set to original live music, it is a common challenge to keep audiences focused and understand what is going on. Sometimes the audience may not be able to get the message the play is trying to convey. To overcome this, just free your mind. Listen to the music and let your emotions guide you to understand each scene.

‘Most times, it’s just a journey of emotions with music and movement. It’s an experience we want to take you on. So all you need to do is just reach out with your heart and feel.’

The intricacies of creating an emotionally-driven play steered her to give the cast plenty of creative space. ‘I didn’t want to choreograph the piece from A to Z. I had them improvise movements from the emotions stirred by the music and the story.’ The cast faced problems of getting the body to repeat moves derived from their emotions. ‘The cast had to do scenes again and again to allow the body to remember by repetition.

‘But whatever problems we faced, all of us learnt from them and allowed us to better ourselves.’

Helena envisions the play will encourage people to take a greater interest in the physical performing arts — an art form that discovers the human body and stretches the boundaries of Malaysian theatre. ‘I hope the public will start being more receptive to other forms of theatre. Being open-minded benefits their imaginations.’

‘Three.’ provokes the thought of language being trivial. What is spoken is secondary. Action speaks louder than words.