HUZIR SULAIMAN
What you see above is the picture of Huzir Sulaiman. Huzir Sulaiman was born in 1973. He is a Malaysian actor, director and writer. One of Malaysia's leading dramatists, acclaimed for his vibrant, inventive use of language and incisive insight into human behaviour in general and the Asian psyche in particular. His plays, often charged with dark humour, political satire, and surrealistic twists, have won numerous awards and international recognition. He currently lives in Singapore.
His father is Haji Sulaiman Abdullah, who was born G. Srinivasan Iyer, a Tamil Brahmin who later converted to Islam. Sulaiman is a veteran lawyer who served as Malaysian Bar Council president. His mother is Hajjah Mehrun Siraj, who has served as a professor, lawyer, consultant for United Nations agencies, NGO activists and a Commissioner with theHuman Rights Commission of Malaysia
For a short time in the early part of this decade, he hosted an afternoon talk show on WOW FM, a now-defunct Malaysian radio station.
He is currently married to Claire Wong, a Malaysia-born Singaporean stage actress.
He is best known for his works "Atomic Jaya", "The Smell of Language", "Hip-Hopera" the Musical, "Notes on Life and Love and Painting", "Election Day", "Those Four Sisters Fernandez", "Occupation" and "Whatever That Is" which have been published in his collection of "Eight Plays" by Silverfish Books. He also contributes articles to the The Star.
Huzir works across different media, art forms, and genres ,telling stories that allow people to access complex ideas in simple, personal, human ways. A celebrated playwright, his plays include the internationally acclaimed satire Atomic Jaya (1998), which asks what would happen if Malaysia decided to build an atomic bomb, and, most recently, the award-winning The Weight of Silk on Skin (2011), a meditation on women, beauty, love and loss. He heads Studio Wong Huzir, a creative consultancy, and is a Joint Artistic Director of Checkpoint Theatre, which the Financial Times (UK) called “a repository of much of [Singapore’s] best stage talent.” Huzir also writes for film, television and newspapers, and teaches playwriting at the National University of Singapore. He also publishes POSKOD.SG, the acclaimed online magazine about Singapore society. As a creative consultant, he has worked as the Creative Director of the observation deck on the 124th floor of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, and has completed a history of Temasek Holdings, an investment arm of the Singapore government. His latest book, published in 2013, is Huzir.
Selected Huzir's Famous Work
Atomic jaya
Written and directed by Huzir Sulaiman, this play is a political satire and a broad-based comedy about Mary Yuen (played by both Karen Tan and Claire Wong), a scientist recruited by the government of Malaysia to build the country’s first atomic bomb. With both actresses taking on multiple roles portraying a myriad of comical and satirical characters that come into her life, Mary Yuen begins to face self-doubt and conflict as she questions the building of such a bomb.
Sulaiman is known to have a very observant and analytical take on his subjects and Atomic Jaya is no different. However, this time around, he also injects humour – both broad and political – eliciting laughs at the slapstick moments as well as the witty dialogue.
Sulaiman also directs both the actresses effectively, at times incorporating a kind of mirror effect where both actresses are literally speaking the same dialogue, and at times having the actresses take over each other’s role mid-scene. It is through these clever techniques that two actresses are able to present to us a full-fledged play with a variety of quirky characters.
The actresses themselves, Wong and Tan, both display great skill in portraying no fewer than a dozen characters between them. Sporting a multitude of accents, mannerisms, body language, gestures and speech patterns, both actresses bring to life each and every person they play on stage.
The only slight problem I had was that there were some characters that were better portrayed by one actress than the other, and the difference between the portrayals was sometimes rather obvious. Tan tried explaining it at the Q&A session as a form of human interaction, whereby one sees/hears a person differently from the way another does. I’m not completely convinced by that argument, and feel that the actress best suited for that role should have carried it till the end.
The surprising thing about Atomic Jaya is that it was written by Sulaiman about 15 years ago and is still well received today. Did he know he was writing something so timeless all those years ago? I asked during the Q&A session. He replied that he didn’t. He merely wrote what was relevant and happening around him at the time. Sulaiman’s observant eye is probably what makes Atomic Jaya so funny and insightful, from the distinct comical traits of his characters to the words he employs in the dialogue.
It isn’t every day that a local play, about local people and local issues, comes along that is as funny or more so than the best-heralded comedy from the West. All right, the play is really about our neighbours, whom we in Singapore used to share a nation with. So there’s a cultural similarity there – and better yet, a reason for Singaporeans to see a very funny, insightful play that’s ultimately about themselves.
The Smell of Language
The Smell of Language had been produced in 1998, Sulaiman's third theatre piece, is a postmodern play which questions the role of the author and focuses on the scandalous events in the Malaysian state of Malacca in 1995, when the Chief Minister was alleged to have raped a fourteen-year-old girl who was then taken into police custody. The grotesqueness of the misuse of power reached its peak when an opposition politician inaccurately labelled the latter incident as imprisonment instead of detainment a choice of words which led him to be thrown into jail himself.
Hip Hopera
HIP
HOPERA, Huzir 'Atomic Jaya' Sulaiman's tart homage to boozy barroom romances,
fits perfectly into this setting - edgy but not dangerous. The plot is
negligible - bar owner Johan (Chris Ngyee, oozing slime from every pore) must
shed his womanising ways in order to win the love of bargirl Salina (Mariel
Reyes) - and the songs are largely insipid, but what stands out is the energy
of the ensemble and their commitment to the quirky humour of the text.
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Sticky romantic scenes are interspersed with snapshots of the bar heaving with action, and the whole is glued together with trippy songs. The haphazard plotting is saved by Sulaiman's sharp writing and unerring eye for the cheap laugh ("We are men!" declares one character. "If you bleed us, are we not pricks?"). Like the inmates of a particularly hip asylum, the characters converse almost entirely in song lyrics and clichés; for example:
Salina:
I'm not waiting for him to strum my pain with his finger.
Doris : Don't wait. Let him eat cake.
Director
Claire Devine makes excellent use of the space, positioning the actors across
the room so the action wraps around the audience. She is helped by a
promising cast, particularly Celine Rosa Tan as bar manager Doris, who
delivers a deliciously barbed performance as the jaded, ageing lush with a
heart of gold. Also good are Reyes, bringing a fresh-faced charm to her
Salina, and the improbably-named Scorpion Zsa Zsa as Trey, the bar's resident
DJ.
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The production as a whole is enjoyable, but is not without its problems. The singing, while energetic, is weak in places, and Joanne Sim's choreography, while visually interesting, is nowhere near as polished as it needs to be. The biggest disappointment is the weak chemistry between Reyes and Ngyee - it is difficult to believe in or care about the relationship between Johan and Salina when the sparks that should be flying between them are so conspicuously absent.
Still,
it would be churlish to pick holes in what is after all a highly accomplished
effort from a youth theatre group. It may be a little rough around the edges,
but HIP HOPERA is never less than entertaining, and at its best is very good
indeed.
Election day
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Election Day is a darkly humorous study of male friendship set against the simmering backdrop of the Malaysian elections. The witty sketch was written by Huzir Sulaiman and first staged in Kuala Lumpur in a matter of weeks after the high stakes political race of 1999 Malaysia General Elections; drawn from Huzir’s own experience as a volunteer for an opposition candidate.
In the film Election, Reese Witherspoon and Chris Klein battled for the student council presidency in a high school contest fraught with name-calling and petty vindictiveness. Election Day demonstrates that grown-up politics can be just as juvenile, taking as its setting the 1999 Malaysian general election that swept UMNO back into power.The set piece at the heart of the play is a wickedly funny portrait of the different groups canvassing outside a polling station, each side convinced that their candidate has been chosen by god to lead the constituency. The average student council candidate's hand-drawn posters look sophisticated next to the tactics adopted by this slightly crazed grassroots effort - golf umbrellas, fluorescent vests, and hackneyed slogans trotted out in a vaguely sinister fashion.
The play is not really a political one, though, or perhaps it is more correct to say it studies not politics itself but how the political can become the personal and vice versa. Its focus is on three housemates affected in different ways by the election - Dedric, a Chinese activist; Fozi, a London-trained Malay architect, and Francis, the crabby Indian narrator.
Huzir Sulaiman's script is filled with acidly funny observations about the state of Malaysian society and the quirks of each racial group. In a kind of reverse political correctness, there is no demographic group that is not dissected by Sulaiman's pen.
The real treat here, though, is in Sulaiman's performance. He plays every character in the show (apart from the enigmatic femme fatale, Natasha) - ducking in and out of accents with uncanny facility, subtly changing his body language to alter his age, race and gender at will. The effect is mesmerising, like a Malaysian one-manUnder Milk Wood.
In the end Election Day is a rather charming study of how human beings in a claustrophobic environment can get just a little carried away with their beliefs. Its plotting, however, is audaciously implausible - the ending has Natasha returning to turn the entire story on its head - and its comments on politics are more witty than insightful. Where it succeeds, though, is at the level of pure entertainment - I do not recall an evening out at the theatre when I have had more fun.
Those Four Sisters
Huzir’s Four Sisters explores the psychodynamics of a Catholic Malayalee family brought together by calamity: the eldest Fernandez sister, Janet, falls into a coma and requires home nursing. The entire play is set in the kitchen of the Fernandez household, now presided over by Beatrice, the youngest, who’s married to a nice Chinese guy named Jeffrey. Janet, though comatose and invisible, is an omnipresent link to the Fernandez family’s past.
Those Four Sisters Fernandez is literally a kitchen drama, though one is tempted to dub it a Krishen drama. Veteran director Krishen Jit (who happens to cohabit with a Catholic Malayalee) has generally shunned realism in theater for a post-Brechtian approach that favors stylized performances from his cast. In this instance he seems to have invoked the memory of the late Bosco D’Cruz (a well-loved Malayalee Catholic theater practitioner) who surely would have seized upon Huzir’s script with gusto, squeezing from it every drop of melodrama inherent in the lively, sparkling lines. But Krishen’s dramaturgical path has diverged too far from naturalistic theater for him to return to the genre without appearing a tad amateurish.
Occupation
written by Huzir Sulaiman and directed by Claire Wong, tells the true life story of Mrs. Mohamed Siraj, who as Sulaiman explained during the post show discussion, was his grandmother. Occupation was first staged in 2002 to critical acclaim, and Sulaiman took inspiration for his script from real life interview sessions done with his grandparents in the 1990’s.
Driven by a protagonist in the form of a fictional character Sarah, who’s an oral historian given the task of interviewing Mrs. Siraj, Occupation examines Mrs. Siraj’s life from the affluent days when she lived in a huge house full of cooks and servants and when her mother would shop at Robinsons and Whiteways (exclusive upmarket shopping centres that would open their stores just for her) to her post-war years at a time when food was scarce and life was both miserable and unstable as she was sequestered at home during the entire war period. Through it all emerges a love story that is the theme of this play as Mrs. Siraj catches the eye of a Mr. Siraj who moves into her neighbour’s house to give tuition to the children there in exchange for food and lodging. With an overly protective, strict and somewhat unreasonable mother, Mrs. Siraj has to content herself with little peeks at Mr. Siraj as she steals chances to climb up to the roof or sneak by the window.
In time, a mutual friend approaches Mrs. Siraj’s mother to arrange for the marriage between Mr. Siraj and Mrs. Siraj, vouching and guaranteeing that Mr. Siraj is a good man. Whilst it is not delved into, it is implied that Mr. Siraj turned out to be a very good man and husband, who dies later on, leaving his resting place glowing because of his good nature and soul.
Sarah, who is documenting Mrs. Siraj’s life through the whole play, lets the audience in on her own views, monologue style, which range from jealousy, annoyance and even anger that Mrs. Siraj had led an opulent lifestyle, was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, and didn’t really suffer during the war years (while many Singaporeans did), to irritation and sadness that Mrs Siraj had what seemed like a very fulfilling and loving relationship with her partner while Sarah herself has a problematic relationship with her boyfriend Tony.
At the end of Sarah’s interview sessions, the play ends with Mrs. Siraj gleefully recalling the first time her fingers brushed against her then-future-husband’s fingers as he handed her some beetle nuts and leaf, and how that was the start to their romance and marriage.
It is never easy for a writer to write a play about his/her own family, without going over board with glorification or being over-indulgent with praise. However, with Occupation, writer Huzir Sulaiman never crossed that line. I didn’t even realise Mrs. Siraj was his flesh and blood until after the show, as the character was written fully fleshed out, but without getting to the level of idolatry. Sulaiman has to be praised for sticking to the facts about his grandmother and staying away from excessive commendation, which was a hard task I imagine given he was writing about his own grandmother.
While Occupation deceptively starts off as a history lesson, mid way through, the play becomes a love story between Mr. and Mrs. Siraj, set within war torn Singapore. Sulaiman’s script is full of beautiful prose such as “she went from pre war prim to post war grim” to reflect Mrs. Siraj’s mother’s condition when the war set, and “gastric juices caressed empty spaces” to show how the family had to go hungry during the Japanese Occupation. Together with Jo Kukathas, who in a proficient performance breathed the right tone, enunciation and delivery of those words, Sulaiman’s already colorful and descriptive dialogue gave the performance layers and nuance that enabled the audience to picture those moments vividly in their heads, despite the almost bare set (except for a few Philippe Starck’s Louis Ghost chairs).
Deftly directed by Claire Wong, the Louis Ghost chairs served as efficient symbolic props – placed haphazardly around to signify the instability of war and placed tidily in a line as euphemism about the more peaceful times. Used at intermittent times during the play, these transparent chairs caught the light just right from the spotlights, creating an eerie and desolate feel when Mrs. Siraj was explaining her plight during the Japanese invasion of Singapore in the 1940’s.
Jo Kukathas helmed Occupation, playing all four characters Sarah, Mrs. Siraj, Sarah’s boyfriend Tony and a Japanese official – with varying accents, mannerisms and gestures in what can only be called a virtuoso performance.
As Sarah, Kukathas was duty-bound but resentful of the older lady Mrs. Siraj because of the latter’s wealth (and possibly also because of Mrs. Siraj’s marriage to a good man while Tony wasn‘t quite a catch for Sarah) – at one point, Sarah asks her lover Tony, “Shouldn’t we consciously make ourselves rich?”. Sulaiman’s clever wink at Singapore society’s embarrassing obsession over wealth and competition is weaved within such lines in the dialogue, and Kukathas’ artful portrayal of Sarah and delivery of her lines bring this all the more to light in the play.
When Kukathas was portraying Mrs. Siraj, she played an energetic and personable 80 year old who when reminiscing about her love story turned almost into a giggly and girlish little schoolgirl, thereby giving Mrs. Siraj the character depth and pathos that resonated with the audience. After all, who wouldn’t gush and giggle if you too had met and married your Prince Charming? And that too during the tumultuous war!
Kukathas was equally consummate when she played Singlish speaking Tony who seemed uninspired and bored with himself – another nod to how many Singaporeans see themselves as part of the system, yearning for change but yet never having the courage to blaze an unexplored path, only to remain bored and querulous. Kukathas also played a Japanese official, complete with a perfect Japanese accent, who’s caught between feeling shame and guilt over the Japanese invasion, but yet being curtailed and censored from full expression by his government who’s too arrogant to apologise for their misdeeds.
Kukathas anchored the entire show masterfully, and if there’s any justice in the arts scene, Kukathas should win or at least get nominated for Best Actress at the next Life! Theatre Awards for her exquisite portrayal of all the different characters, for her ability to keep them all special and distinct, and for injecting a myriad of varying emotions, accents, expressions and body language into each one of them. This was truly a tour de force performance from Jo Kukathas.
When you see so much of the theatre these days having breath-taking sets and props, and with a cast list filled with famous local celebrities, it’s refreshing that under-the-radar Checkpoint Theatre has proven that this is essentially what great theatre should be about – it’s about excellent writing, skillful directing and a proficient actor to bring it all out to the audience. You don’t need big budgets, flashy sets or glamorous stars as Occupation didn’t have any of that, and it managed to touch the heart of the audience magnificently.
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