Epigram Books

Five Arts Centre

Excavations, Interrogations, Krishen Jit and Contemporary Malaysian Theatre&nbsp;is a volume comprising essays, critical reflections and a performance text that stem from an experimental theatre conference held in January 2015 on the work of Malaysian theatre director Krishen Jit (1939 - 2005). Fourteen writers from different disciplines, generations and backgrounds draw from personal encounters, critical theory and performance analysis to engage with ideas about Krishen's theatre. They excavate and interro

Excavations, Interrogations, Krishen Jit & Contemporary Malaysian Theatre

Writer

Five Arts Centre's philosophy of experimentation and commitment to promoting new work has led to a rich staging history of plays that have challenged the conventions of form, language and theme on the Malaysian stage. Devised theatre, multilingual performance, improvisation, inter- and intracultural experimentation&nbsp;and cross-genre collaborations are but some of the innovations Five Arts Centre has become known for since it was established in 1984 by Chin San Sooi, Krishen Jit&nbsp;and Marion D'Cruz wit

Staging History: Selected Plays from Five Arts Centre Malaysia 1984 - 2014

Checkpoint Theatre

Huzir Sulaiman is one of Southeast Asia's most eminent playwrights, widely acclaimed for his elegant use of language, inventive humour and complex characters. The 12 plays in this collection offer unexpected perspective on social, political, and psychological realities that make for riveting theatre.&nbsp;

The works defy easy classification, ranging from the biting political satire&nbsp;Atomic Jaya&nbsp;(1998), a madcap account of Malaysia's attempt to build an atomic bomb; to&nbsp;Occupation&nbsp;(2002)

Huzir Sulaiman: Collected Plays 1998 - 2012

Playwright

The Necessary Stage

Welcome to our third issue of&nbsp;focas,&nbsp;bristling with audacity, intelligence and wit (okay, I will henceforth dispense with the Hello Kitty house style, but I did think it was at least worth a try, given that one of our sections deal with kitsch). This issue, as usual, has three thematic sections:&nbsp;Work/Play, Kitsch and The Singapore Modern;&nbsp;and&nbsp;Bodies &amp; Text, all of which correspond with public forums on the same or related topics...

[...]

... Where historical density is per

focas: No 3

Huzir Sulaiman is one of Malaysia's leading dramatists, acclaimed for his vital, inventive language and darkly humorous insight.&nbsp;

This collection brings together his plays from 1998 to 2002:&nbsp;Atomic Jaya, The Smell of Language, Hip-Hopera, Notes on Life &amp; Love &amp; Painting, Election Day, Those Four Sisters Fernandez, Occupation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Whatever That Is.&nbsp;

(Source:&nbsp;Eight Plays&nbsp;blurb)&nbsp;


Eight Plays

Feels Like Home: New Singapore Plays Volume 3&nbsp;features seven critically-acclaimed plays by Checkpoint Theatre's Associate Artists. Thought-provoking and emotionally charged, they delve into the complexities of what it means to call Singapore home.

Discover a whole new world beneath Singapore's MRT tunnels in Luke Somasundram's adventure-comedy&nbsp;Swipe Right,&nbsp;or soak in the quiet charms of the autobiographical one-woman play&nbsp;Still Life&nbsp;by Dana Lam. There are unflinching examinations

Feels Like Home: New Singapore Plays Volume 3

Editor

Voices Clear and True: New Singapore Plays Volume 1&nbsp;is the first in a series of play collections published by Checkpoint Theatre that showcase the exciting work of a new generation of Singapore playwrights.

This is the first volume in a series of play collections published by Checkpoint Theatre that showcase the exciting work of a new generation of Singapore playwrights. Published as part of Checkpoint Theatre’s 10th anniversary celebrations, these plays are evidence of the burgeoning renaissance in

Voices Clear and True: New Singapore Plays Volume 1

Following a completely sold-out run in 2021, Checkpoint Theatre is proud to bring back Session Zero with its original cast and creative team.As an estranged couple attempts to reconnect over a game of Dungeons &amp; Dragons, the conflicts of daily life are inevitably carried onto the battlefield. Given the mess created by the years of history together, can fantasy storytelling help them rediscover the connection they need?With masterful strokes, playwright Jo Tan paints a nuanced portrait of the gulf betwee

Session Zero (2023)

Director

Dramaturg

In the quiet of their church’s cry room, Catherine and David anxiously await the results of an important vote. As the crucial decision hangs in the balance, the life they have built together over the last 30 years comes under sharp scrutiny, and they are compelled to confront the very basis of their relationship.Tender Submission bears witness to the unspooling of a decades-long marriage. When faith and purpose diverge, what truly lies at the heart of a relationship? Can a new path be found together?Under H

Tender Submission (2023)

The eve of an election. A politician, a musician, an activist, an academic, and a therapist reunite after several years. As the five friends catch up on the different paths their lives have taken, they realise their rose-tinted memories might be the only thing holding them together. With secrets unravelling, old conflicts reawakening, and a threat looming, the five are forced to confront the boys they once were, and the men they want to become.Playwright Myle Yan Tay’s powerful and incisive play lays bare t

Brown Boys Don't Tell Jokes (2023)

Costume Designer

Following sold-out runs of the critically acclaimed&nbsp;Normal (2015 and 2017), playwright Faith Ng and director Claire Wong return with&nbsp;The Fourth Trimester, a compelling new play that will sweep you into the vivid, messy embrace of parenthood and family life.

The first month is always the roughest.

Exhausted from battling sleepless nights and endless diaper changes, first-time parents Samantha and Aaron find themselves overwhelmed caring for their newborn. Close friends rally around them in su

The Fourth Trimester (2022)

Producer

Upper-class, middle-aged libertine John Au Yong has many distractions: the erotic allure of women; neat whiskey in cut crystal; the matchless charms of a well-cut suit.

But haunted pasts and their regrets do not fade. When the opportunity to reclaim lost love surfaces, he recalls the golden memories of his youth, fraught with reckless abandonment and exhilarating passion. As the years slip beyond his grip, is there any hope in reviving the embers of his past?

Huzir Sulaiman’s compelling script takes o

The Weight of Silk on Skin (2022)

Armed with a tape recorder, Sarah, an ambitious young oral historian, begins the task of interviewing Mrs Siraj, who recounts her youth and romance under the Japanese Occupation. As she listens to these stories of the past, Sarah struggles with questions of her own life in modern day Singapore and what the future holds.

Twenty years after its standout premiere,&nbsp;Occupation&nbsp;continues to captivate audiences with its lyrical and moving account of tender love and bold passions. Acclaimed playwright 

Occupation (2022)

Checkpoint Theatre makes a triumphant return to live performance with&nbsp;Session Zero,&nbsp;running from&nbsp;02 - 19 December 2021&nbsp;at 42 Waterloo Street.

As an estranged couple makes one last attempt to save their marriage, could a game of Dungeons &amp; Dragons truly make a difference? As they embark on what could be the final journey of their life together, the couple must decide if the premise of their relationship is a game or a competition.

Directed and with dramaturgy by Huzir Sulaiman, 

Session Zero (2021)

After Grandma’s passing, her extended family holds a seven-day wake at the void deck. Clashing siblings, long-suffering in-laws, and estranged sons come together to hurt and to heal when their world is upended. Each must learn to say goodbye while struggling to hold on to those left behind.

Playwright Zenda Tan delivers a beautiful and incisive portrayal of family dynamics fraught with grief and past grievances. As they navigate unfamiliar rites and funeral rituals, they discover that food, offerings, an

Eat Duck (2019)

Co-Producer

A crisis tests the resolve of the international staff of a refugee camp. Can they stay sane, stay alive, and stay strong when their minds, bodies, and spirits are called upon to do the impossible?

Written by Huzir Sulaiman,&nbsp;Displaced Persons’ Welcome Dinner&nbsp;is a&nbsp;multidisciplinary theatrical work set against the backdrop of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, investigating the realities of the aid industry. With sensitivity and nuance, Huzir delves beneath media portrayals to disco

Displaced Persons’ Welcome Dinner (2019)

What happens when an artist picks up her paintbrush after a long hiatus? Does the body still remember what has been lived? Or are the senses dulled by time, the joints fused with experience?

Still Life&nbsp;is an affecting look at life and art-making. In this deeply personal performance, Dana Lam rediscovers and reclaims her journey from the 1950s to the present, through her twin first loves: writing and painting. From journalist to activist, from daughter to grandmother, she confronts the choices and te

Still Life (2019)

But what is a good girl anyway? Does she have to know her prayers by heart? Can she ever let go, and get her freak on?&nbsp;Thick Beats for Good Girls&nbsp;is the electrifying collaboration between performance-poet Pooja Nansi and playwright Jessica Bellamy, who have a ton of questions about the balancing act that is being a woman, an ethnic or religious minority and—God forbid—a hip-hop enthusiast.

This is the coming-of-age anthem Singapore hasn’t heard yet—mainly because it wouldn’t make it onto nation

Thick Beats for Good Girls (2018)

“In the early morning march,
With the field pack on my back,
With an aching in my heart,
And my body full of sweat.”

For their seventh year in reservist training, a group of army mates in an armoured infantry unit return for a war game exercise. In the periods of waiting, their thoughts drift to their relationships, jobs, newborn babies and aging parents as the demands of the outside world intrude in. They begin to wrestle with what it means to step up and ‘adult’.

Poignant and insightful,&nbsp;FRA

FRAGO (2017)

Ashley and Daphne are Secondary 5 Normal Academic students struggling to cope with the pressure to perform. When idealistic teacher Sarah Hew joins the school, Ashley and Daphne find the courage to face their hidden fears, hurts and dreams. The education system tries to build people up – but what happens when it breaks people down? Sharply written and profoundly affecting,&nbsp;Normal&nbsp;explores the world of students who fail to fit the mould.

Normal&nbsp;premiered in 2015 to a sold-out run with audie

Normal (2017)

Huzir Sulaiman

Claire Wong

Spontaneous and fiery. Sad and beautiful. Seductive and&nbsp;heartbreaking. The Last Bull: A Life In Flamenco is an extraordinary&nbsp;love story between one man and the art of flamenco. Written&nbsp;by Huzir Sulaiman and directed by Claire Wong, this seductive&nbsp;play revolves around Antonio Vargas, one of the world’s leading&nbsp;flamenco dancers and choreographers.

Born in Casablanca to a family of French-speaking Spanish Jews, the 75-year&nbsp;old Vargas has lived around the world, including Morocc

The Last Bull: A Life In Flamenco (2016)

An adaptation of the 2015&nbsp;M1-The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards&nbsp;nominee for Best Original Script,&nbsp;#UnicornMoment&nbsp;explores the important moments that shape an individual’s life.

In&nbsp;#UnicornMoment, Shu An questions herself on the relationships she has with the people around her and the things that give meaning to her life. She delves into her past through a series of interviews, to learn from mistakes and to find flashes of clarity and insight that swiftly disappear—or, as she 

#UnicornMoment (2016)

As long-time friends and fellow theatre artists, Claire Wong and Noorlinah Mohamed would often meet and talk about their mothers and the complexities of living and not living with them. One mother is Cantonese-speaking and impetuous; the other speaks Malay and is quietly stubborn. Both are smart, sharp and strong. Both are wonderful cooks.

The&nbsp;Recalling Mother&nbsp;project began in 2006 with Claire and Noorlinah examining and charting how their relationships with their respective mothers have evolve

Recalling Mother (2016)

In this fast and ever-changing world, what is constant? What do we lose in the name of progress? And what happens when we finally let go?

The 1975 Bollywood classic&nbsp;Sholay, with its thrilling exploits of outlaw heroes and high-stakes emotion, provides the backdrop for this profoundly humorous coming-of-age story that chronicles Raghav’s journey from boyhood in the small Indian city of Ambala to the metropolis of Singapore.

From navigating a sense of home to finding where you belong in a globalise

The Good, the Bad and the Sholay (2015)

Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay

“What’s the worst thing you can do to a man? It is not to fight him, to break him, to defeat him…."

Born into an upper middle class family, John Au Yong’s pleasures in life are sex and money. However, he begins to reflect about things that are really important in life when he meets his old college sweetheart, Anna. The impending meeting triggers memories of his past loves and losses, his boxed-in teenage years in Singapore, and his liberating experience in New York, which unlocks an unrestrained monologu

The Weight of Silk on Skin (2015)

She appears confident and bubbly, yet Shu An is uncertain of who she really is. All she knows is that she experiences flashes of clarity and insight that swiftly disappear — or, as she terms them, “unicorn moments”. As she delves into her past through interviews with people who have shaped her, Shu An hopes to translate her experiences from these pivotal milestones into a collection of life lessons. #UnicornMoment is a courageous and honest exploration of what it means to find happiness, meaning and your ow

#UnicornMoment (2014)

The year is 1998, and physicist Dr Mary Yuen has a story to tell about the building of the Malaysian atomic bomb. It's a hilarious tale that sees her being lured away from her mundane lab job to join General Zulkifli's madcap plan to construct a nuclear device "for the good of the country". Along the way, she meets a colourful array of characters - including scientists, smugglers, socialites, ministers and a particularly important canteen lady - and is obliged to come to terms with a difficult moral dilemma

Atomic Jaya (2013)

An old woman’s recollection of romance under the Japanese occupation of Singapore causes her young interviewer to re-evaluate life, memory and history.

Written by award-winning and acclaimed playwright Huzir Sulaiman, Occupation weaves the true story of Huzir’s grandmother, Mrs Mohamed Siraj, with the experiences of the fictional character Sarah. Mrs Siraj was a young woman in her teens during the war years and spent most of the occupation sequestered in her large family home. Later in her eighties, Mrs 

Occupation (2012)

Seven friends from Singapore, Bombay, Surabaya and Hong Kong weave together stories and songs to create a raw, authentic and affecting snapshot of an Asian city after dark. Drawing in part from their own lives, the ensemble searches for friendship, love and peace, crossing into the difficult territories of joy, heartbreak and acceptance, as they lay bare the secrets of the night.

Written and composed by its cast under the watchful eye of director Huzir Sulaiman,&nbsp;City Night Songs&nbsp;is a devised mu

City Night Songs (2012)

Wild Rice

"It’s only when you pull her dress over her head that you can begin to understand the weight of silk on skin; to divine, in the lines left by the seams on her bare shoulders, how you will leave, and when, and with what rehearsed words of deep regret."

He’s an arbiter of elegance at the end of the road, rewinding a life of cold beauty and harsh truths. His distractions are many: the erotic allure of women; neat whiskey in cut crystal; the matchless charms of a well-cut suit. But what happens when memories

The Weight of Silk on Skin (2011)

Set Designer

This is Raghav’s journey: moving from the small Indian town of Ambala to the metropolis of Singapore. It is also a very personal retelling of the 1975 Bollywood classic, Sholay, with the exploits of its outlaws forming the backdrop of this insightful and funny coming-of-age story.

Travel with Raghav from his boyhood town with no traffic lights to the complexities of his university life in Singapore, then back again when he returns to India — a new India of cineplexes and fast food chains. In an ever chan

The Good, the Bad and the Sholay (2011)

What happens when you place six playwrights and three historical texts in one museum?

Responding to some of Singapore’s most significant historical writings – Sejarah Melayu, Hikayat Munshi Abdullah, and Frank Swettenham’s Malay Sketches – six young writers create six short plays that challenge our ideas of reality, performance, identity and, possibly, life itself.

Curated by Huzir Sulaiman, the six short plays were written by Christine Chong, Lucas Ho, Daniel Koh, Cheryl Lee, Laremy Lee and Alissa Ro

The Power of Notions / Notions of Power (2011)

Curator

Feast on a five-course buffet of Caucasian-Asian relationships inspired by Frank Swettenham's cross-cultural interest. On the menu: a boy experiences&nbsp;amour fou&nbsp;with his French teacher, a girl meets her stalker, while James Ivory and Ismail Merchant get married.


Buffet (2011)

Performer

Recalling Mother is a funny and moving piece written and performed by Claire Wong and Noorlinah Mohamed.

Two women tell stories about two other women – their mothers – and the complexities of living with (and not living with) Mother. The production was first produced in the intimate setting of a fine art gallery, providing a unique and nuanced theatrical experience, celebrating the joys and challenges of motherhood – and daughterhood.


Recalling Mother (2009)

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts

Hip-Hopera offers all the features of musical comedy. The characters are at cross purposes. There are many laughs, a few tears - and nine songs for liberating the characters' strong reactions.

Huzir Sulaiman is a fine playwright and we have in Hip-Hopera a more complex set of relationships than the main structure of the musical plot demands. The characters negotiate their needs in ever-changing ways, so that we experience rapid mood changes as offence is mitigated by compliment, and resistance gives way 

Hip Hopera (2009)

Buds Theatre

The play follows the story of best friends, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff. Jack loves Gwendolyn. Algernon loves Cecily. Gwendolyn loves Earnest. Cecily loves Earnest. Neither Jack nor Algernon are Earnest. Or are they? Set in 19th century England, The Importance of Being Earnest is a uproarious tale of mistaken identities, a stolen handbag and everybody wanting to be Earnest!


The Importance of Being Earnest (2009)

Cast

In&nbsp;Cogito, a commission of the 2007 Singapore Arts Festival, Huzir Sulaiman weaves the consequences of neuroscience and computing into a compelling story of love and loss.In the near future, technology has changed everything, except the strength – and fragility – of the human spirit. Two women discover they are grieving for the same man. But the secrets they unearth about their pasts threaten to overwhelm the present – and their very sense of identity.


Cogito (2007)

Election Day&nbsp;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.


Election Day (2004)

Sound Designer

What happens when Malaysia decides to build an atomic bomb?

One of Asia’s classic satires. Deliciously politically incorrect,&nbsp;Atomic Jaya&nbsp;takes a caustic look at national hubris. We follow the intrepid physicist Dr. Mary Yuen as she takes on the top-secret national project and meets a madcap assortment of characters, from uranium smugglers to cabinet ministers, canteen ladies to a certain general with a Napoleonic fixation. Hilarious writing and virtuoso acting with 3 actors taking all 14 roles

Atomic Jaya (2003)

Costume Supervisor

Musician

Lyricist

INVITATION TO TREAT&nbsp;is the complete trilogy of plays by lawyer and acclaimed playwright Eleanor Wong. First staged in the 1990s, Mergers &amp; Accusations and Wills &amp; Secessions were two plays that made a huge impact on the Singapore theatre scene for their bold ideas, sparkling wit and incisively honest portrayal of the experience of a gay person’s double life in conservative Singapore.

A decade on and have things changed? We may have been busily "Remaking" ourselves, but really, does every Sin

Jointly & Severably (2003)

"History," writes Malaysia's leading playwright and director, Huzir Sulaiman, "is not what happens to nations and races. It's what happens to mothers and fathers, daughters and sons." In&nbsp;Occupation,&nbsp;a Malaysia-Singapore co-production commissioned to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Japanese Occupation of Singapore and Malaya, the young wizard of wit presents a vibrant tapestry of individual stories, accounts of survival and horror, betrayal and fortitude - garnered from the experiences of h

Occupation (2002) 

Artistic Director

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Huzir Sulaiman

WORKS DOCUMENTED IN THE ARCHIVE

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