KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 — There is a saying that we are what our family makes us to be, whether we like it or not.

Subang Jaya-based performing arts company Theatresauce will explore this in their new anthology They All Die At The End.

Featuring an all-male Indian ensemble, the two-hour play will be directed by Emerging Directors Lab alumni Dhinesha Karthigesu in a series of vignettes.

The show will use poetry, music, and visuals to tell stories, real and fictional, of the Malaysian Indian experience in the past, present, and imagination.

The cast will express ‘painful realities’ and ‘joy-filled spaces’ in a deeply personal but uniquely collective performances.

"Surprisingly, I had never worked with an all-male ensemble in the past,” Karthigesu told Malay Mail.

"But I knew when we gathered together that our shared experiences and thoughts would create something special.”

The director wanted to highlight the different issues of the way Malaysian men see themselves in the modern age relating to social class, physical appearance, and family upbringing.

He added that death in the show's ‘dramatic’ title didn’t only mean physical death but promised the stories would portray ‘internal’ and ‘figurative’ death.

The biggest challenge in showing the Malaysian Indian male experience according to Karthigesu was that there were too many good stories to share.

"The challenge as the director has been to come in and go ‘Sorry guys. I love this scene but it can’t fit in the show’, Karthigesu said.

He hopes that the story will resonate with Malaysian Indian audiences but also wishes Malaysians will be able to discover how similar their stories are.

"I hope its a reminder that our experiences here remind and shows us that actually, we are all Malaysians and that experience cuts through everything,” the director said.

The ensemble features actors Ian Skatu, Karthigesan, Nandagopall, Sidhart Joe Dev and Tin Raman

They All Die At The End will play in Pentas 2, klpac from May 25 to 28 at 8.30pm and May 20 to 21 at 3pm.

Tickets begin at RM35 for students, RM45 for a bulk purchase of four tickets, and RM55 for a standard single ticket.

Tickets will be available here.

For more information on They All Die At The End and upcoming shows, click here.