KUALA LUMPUR: Heartbreak is a universal tax we all pay at some point, whether it is an explosive breakup, a quiet drifting apart, or simply the sting of "the one that got away".

Now, local arts outfit TerryandTheCuz is turning that familiar anguish upside down with The Failed Romances, an ambitious coming-of-age hybrid cabaret set to light up The Studio at the Jeffrey Cheah Performing Arts Centre (JCPAC) in Sunway City from Nov 12 to 15.

Co-created by Australian theatre-maker Adriano Cortese alongside TerryandTheCuz's own award-winning multi-hyphenate Govin Ruben, the 90-minute spectacle dismantles and celebrates the grand, larger-than-life romantic tropes of Tamil cinema.

The show unpacks the inherited myths surrounding masculinity, attraction, and identity — pulling back the layers of how generations of film and colonial history have quietly scripted our personal love lives.