KUCHING: This year’s World Harvest Festival’s play will be ‘The Fish Princess: A Highlander Love Story’ based on a Kelabit folklore to be set at the heart of the Sarawak Cultural Village (SCV) from May 3 and 4.
The play will be utilising SCV’s lake, ethnic houses and trees as natural props.
It aims to promote Sarawak as the land of folklores and legends.
In a nutshell, the play will tell the story of a water world princess who is turned into a fish and sent to earth.
The fish princess is then raised by a poor childless couple called Abing Lian and Sigang Aban who resided in a village called Pa’ Labid.
As time goes by, the couple is shocked when the fish they raised turned into a young and beautiful lady whom they named Dayang Abing Lian.
With magical powers bestowed upon her, Dayang was able to turn her poor family into a very wealthy family in the village.
The wealth of Dayang’s family became news and also her beauty.
Conflicts arose when young men fought one another over her.
Dayang became the envy of young women in the village when a handsome noble man named Berapoi fell in love with her.
Eventually, Dayang and Berapoi were married in a grand wedding celebration according to traditions and they lived happily ever after.
The original story is adapted from the story book, ‘Kumpulan Cerita Rakyat Sarawak’, compiled by Jiso Rutan and Abdul Kadir Yunus and published by Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka in 2010.
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