IN DEFENCE OF INDOMITABLE DIRECTORS - 01 October

"…Malaysia is a derivative country. Almost every facet of our culture is imported. Chinese come from China, Indians come from India, Malays come from wherever they come from. What comes from Malaysia? What have we invented? The Malay language is stuffed full of Sanskrit and Arabic and now English. The alphabet is either Jawi, which is Arabic, or Rumi, which is the Roman alphabet courtesy of the Portuguese. Our system of government, our legal system: from the British. We sembah our sultans because it's a holdover from the old Hindu empires of Majapahit and Srivijaya. I'm speaking English because of the British. I'm a Muslim because Islam came from the Arabs and was brought here either by the Indians or the Chinese or the Arabs, depending on whose theory you believe. It angers me when after hundreds of years of importing aspects of other people's culture some politician in a 4,000-ringgit Italian suit complains about Western values and such-and-such a thing is not from our culture. Our culture is everybody else's culture. We've never had our own…Deal with it and grow up. Would you like some coffee? No? It's Colombian." - Excerpt from Notes on Life & Love & Painting ©1999, Eight Plays: Huzir Sulaiman (pg 135)

Still in its infancy, English theatre in Malaysia is said to have begun with the establishment of the Literary and Dramatic Society at the Universiti Malaya in the 1960's. Our October lecture turned into a lively forum with Selangor-born, Singapore-based, Huzir Sulaiman-accomplished actor, producer, director and master playwright.

Barely 30, Huzir is a formidable talent in the English-speaking theatre scene in both Malaysia (where he co-founded the Straits Theatre Company in 1996) and Singapore (where he is joint artistic director at Checkpoint Theatre). Huzir himself was introduced to the local stage in 1980 at the age of seven in a play called The Little Clay Cart, a Sanskrit play performed in English, and a year later in Struggle of the Naga Tribe, both Universiti Malaya graduate productions directed by Karen Kraal.

Hot on the heels of the recent successful re-interpretation of his inspired Malaysian social and political satire Atomic Jaya at The Actor's Studio, Bangsar, Huzir shared with us his insights into his various productions, the process and challenges of writing and producing, obstacles faced-censorship, lack of funding-and his vision for Southeast Asian theatre.

Creative Process When asked where he gets his ideas, Huzir likened the process to wine-making, "laying it down until fit to drink" - anywhere from two months to ten years! Written in 1998, Atomic Jaya's preoccupation with weapons of mass destruction, proved to be a script ahead of its time. The audience was kept in stitches with a script that seemed to defy the censors. A memorable exchange is the one between Dr Mary Yuen (nuclear physicist) and General Zulkifli (who commissions her to build the first Malaysian atom bomb) as the general welcomes Dr Yuen to the research laboratory of Syarikat Perniagaan Atomic Jaya Sdn. Bhd:
	YUEN:   Yes, I was confused about the sign. You mean this is a private company? GENERAL:   It's not my decision. Everything they must privatise now. But it's okay. The directors of the company include seven generals and one Prime Minister's son. You must have Prime Minister's son. Keep them busy. Otherwise if unemployed they will start the NGO.

Long-time MCG member, Joanne Mahendran, a retired International School of KL teacher, remembers Huzir as an excellent student in every subject, with forensics and drama his favourite after-school activities. He was to go on to Princeton majoring in English Literature. So it was no surprise when Huzir told us that when writing, he does lots of research and likes to be well-informed on a subject so that he knows what to leave out!

But mostly he writes from personal experience. Time spent in clubs and bars, conversations at dinner, always observing, he keeps his finger on the pulse of the Malaysian psyche.

As for the writing process, a play is usually 85% done and gets fleshed out once rehearsals start. Or it can be like Occupation, (commissioned by the Singapore National Arts Council for the 2002 Singapore Arts Festival to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the fall of Singapore). Twenty drafts were written as the play evolved after exhaustive research, several interviews with Mrs Selvaraj (Huzir's grandmother), walking around the places mentioned and a workshop in Singapore with all the collaborators on the play. Huzir prefers to call Occupation a "collaboration".

Funding
Huzir explained that Singapore is undergoing a sort of renaissance with a government mandate to nurture and fund the arts and turn Singapore into an international cultural hub. There are lots of funding bodies, the largest being the National Arts Council. Banks and insurance companies consider corporate sponsorship prestigious. The process is also transparent.

The risk is that it can result in politically and socially self-censored productions, slick and worryingly soulless. In Malaysia on the other hand, whereas there are generous budgets and government funding available for Malay language productions, English language theatre receives no such funding. There is also no corporate culture sponsoring the performing arts. On the positive side, it also means there is no interference. Another advantage in KL is that it is cheaper to rent theatre space and theatre groups can afford to be more experimental.
But it still all comes down to funding. The theatre audience is limited and attendance is dwindling worldwide as it competes with other forms of entertainment. According to Huzir, local audiences are not mature enough to take pleasure in something that is not a comedy. Money can be made with comedy, which makes it difficult to write other plays.

Censorship
Despite the Dewan Bandaraya KL's (KL City Hall) most recent draconian criteria for the approval of scripts for theatre performances, Huzir still feels the onus is on theatre practitioners to improve the quality of their work-better acting and especially better writing.

He agreed with Amir Muhammad's hard-hitting observation in Options from The Edge newspaper that censorship is often used as an excuse by Malaysian writers for either not paying enough attention to their writing or even worse, not writing at all. Amir also dared to venture that most writing doesn't contain anything that is likely to be censored anyway, or that one can get away with a lot more than one thinks.

Huzir has certainly taken up the gauntlet of this challenge. He added that the lack of financial and moral government support for the arts in Malaysia could lead to the very real danger of "institutionalised amateurism". Practitioners are forced to work at other jobs and can only partially dedicate themselves to their passion and craft.

Huzir enviably sets an example of how it can be done. Hard work, discipline, and by now, a very well-honed ability to "play the game", whether it be with the Malaysian or Singaporean authorities, appeasing political and social sensibilities, and especially in Singapore's case, the time consuming task of writing and submitting planning proposals for funding which Huzir admits can take up 50% of one's time.

Silverfish Books recently published Eight Plays, a collection of Huzir's work from 1998-2002. Acclaimed for its vital, inventive language and darkly humorous insight, the collection includes Atomic Jaya; The Smell of Language; Hip-Hopera; Notes on Life & Love & Painting; Election Day; Those Four Sisters Fernandez; Occupation; and Whatever That Is.

His plays are now studied in three universities in Malaysia as well as at 'A' and 'O' levels in some schools. He said it was gratifying, and scary, to see his plays take on a life of their own.

Occupation and Whatever That Is were featured at an Asian play reading in the UK, followed by an interview with the BBC. Huzir said it was the first time that someone outside the Malaysian / Singaporean milieu had interpreted his work objectively, as words on paper, and he found the experience "magical".

On the eve of a well-earned break and a new decade for Huzir, I dare say the best in his creative output is yet to come.

- Iolanda Capodanno
P/S. In the meantime, there is talk of a re-staging in KL of the acclaimed Those Four Sisters Fernandez©2000-a psychological portrait of family relations-to be directed by Zahim Albakri (subject to funding being made available!). Watch out for it!

- Renata Greplova
Note: Further information on the library can be found here

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