Amongst the many forms of cultural theatre that exist in Singapore, one of the rarer genres would be Peranakan theatre. Often presented in Baba Melayu language, the art form was prevalent from the 1920s to the early 1960s but went dormant for over 20 years. In 1984, it was revived in a landmark play, Pileh Menantu, by the late Peranakan playwright Felix Chia, commissioned for the Singapore Festival of Arts. In the 1980s and ‘90s, Felix became a household name in wayang Peranakan and known for other plays such as Laki Tua Bini Muda (1985) and Tua Poh Sio Poh (1991).

Come the late 2000s, and Peranakan culture saw another resurgence in interest with the opening of the Peranakan Museum and the NUS Baba House, as well as the airing of the drama series The Little Nyonya on mainstream television. Groups like the Gunong Sayang Association, which had been staging annual wayang Peranakan productions, also became more active. The newfound interest in Peranakan culture among mainstream audiences led to more community theatre productions featuring non-professional actors. Now, in line with their dedication to presenting traditional Asian art forms, Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay is bringing Peranakan theatre to their Singtel Waterfront Theatre this weekend, with a new staging of Felix Chia’s Mari Kita Main Wayang.

First staged in 1994 with The Necessary Stage, Mari Kita Main Wayang was originally directed by Alvin Tan, who now returns to direct this new production. Assisted by Aidli ‘Alin’ Mosbit with a reimagined script by playwright/transcreator Zulfadli ‘Big’ Rashid, Mari Kita Main Wayang is a play-within-a-play that follows a group of Peranakans who come together to stage Empat Bini, an ambitious script that is set within the illustrious walls of a royal court. However, as the play unfolds, the two generations of players begin to raise questions and wrest for control, in a comedic and captivating feat of storytelling.

“I became part of this project when the Esplanade approached me, where they shifted their focus towards developing local productions over the pandemic period, and realised they had never hosted or presented a Peranakan theatre play on such a large scale before,” says director Alvin, who is Peranakan himself. “Originally, the team suggested restaging Pileh Menantu, but it’s also a play that’s very much of its time, where it was originally three hours long where the focus was more about celebrating the Peranakan language and identity. As such, I counter-proposed Mari Kita Main Wayang, not just as a restaging but to also adapt it for a contemporary audience, and reach out to a wider non-Peranakan audience, as well as challenge the pre-conceived notions of ‘Peranakan’.”

Felix Chia passed away in 2010, but is fondly remembered by the community. “The Peranakan community would turn up at his plays, laugh from beginning to end, and then go backstage to chide him for washing dirty laundry in public,” says Alvin. “Felix was never ashamed of the foibles of Peranakan culture. In fact, he was proud to draw from both its strengths and weaknesses. He wanted us Peranakans to laugh at ourselves and not be over-precious about proper representation. He would always push the envelope. He questioned his own achievements rather than resting on his laurels.”

“By the time he wrote Mari Kita Main Wayang, he had matured as a playwright and confidently embarked on structural exploration. This was groundbreaking for Peranakan theatre compared to the linear, one-scene-one-objective, slow-moving, three-hour long formulaic Peranakan plays that came before that. He attempted a play-within-a-play framework, inventing a fable comprising a Peranakan royal court when we never had royalty in our cultural history,” he continues. “This allowed him to question issues such as misogyny and patriarchy, and I decided to bring Big onto this project because of his experience in transcreation, and left it to him to help edit the script, particularly with expanding on the meta-elements where the actors would discuss the play itself.”

Big is indeed known for his transcreation works, having previously transcreated works like Chong Tze Chien’s Poop or A Clockwork Orange, both for Teater Ekamatra. But with Peranakan theatre, written in the language of Baba Melayu, Big faced a new challenge, in terms of capturing the nuances of the unique language and to consider the entirety of the culture in his transcreation process. “It’s a play that comes with the weight of history, tradition and legacy of Peranakan theatre itself, and while the language is similar to bahasa Melayu, it’s also its own patois that has its own differences, where we had to bring in Rapheal and Melanie as our Baba Malay translators for the actors,” says Big.

“The whole process was much more collaborative than I was used to, where I would be working closely with Alvin, the translators, alongside Peranakan cultural, heritage and linguistic experts, and I’d say we’ve changed maybe 60% of the original script,” he continues. “Transcreation transcends mere adaptation or translation; it is a transformative odyssey. It demands that we immerse ourselves in the subtleties of various cultures, comprehend the nuances of language, reclaim the richness of our written and unwritten history, and construct a universe of characters that transcends linguistic boundaries. We treaded carefully at first, but became more confident once given the blessings of everyone around us, and it became easier and more liberal as we moved into script reads.”

This was probably a somewhat terrifying process, literally being vetted by the who’s who within the Peranakan community and hearing the criticisms directly from their mouths. But both Alvin and Big trusted in the process, and respected their expertise in knowledge and history that allowed them to achieve their ultimate goal of progressing and innovating the play. “Our negotiations took into account a lot of the cultural focus, especially with the hybridity between Malay and Chinese and Peranakan language and cultures and world views, where they would cross-pollinate, and so Big had to really ask about individual words and their significance, making it quite a demanding process,” says Alvin.

More than that, Alvin was ready to take Felix’s original intent of creating a Peranakan play for Peranakan audiences, and expanding it to become more mainstream, and appeal to a wider group. “We need to fail in preserving aspects of conventions that no longer speak to the era we live in. We need to renovate and innovate, as every meaningful cultural production should aspire towards. We need to have contemporary elements converse and cross-pollinate with traditional devices and practices,” says Alvin. “This does not mean we throw the baby out with the bathwater. Instead, we must explore which aspects of tradition keep, what to renovate and what to do away with. Familiarity may affirm identity but culture is not fixed, it evolves over time.”

“For the form to survive, it must become relevant to the younger generations, and departures from comfortable nostalgia may be necessary to enable the sustainability of tradition. We wanted to explore the spectrum of diversity even within the Peranakan community, like the Chetti Melaka, the Hindu Indians, the Catholic Indians, and all these interfaith, intercultural elements as well, beyond the dominance of the Chinese Peranakans,” Alvin continues. “There is no ‘pure’ Peranakan identity, because all of us are drawn from all bloodlines and backgrounds. We are enriched by diversity rather than trying to keep it insular, which is why our cast and creatives also welcomes non-Peranakan members, from Munah Bagharib to Masturah Oli, who represent the newer generation with mixed parentage and get riled up by how females are represented onstage, updating the politics and representation for today.”

Despite significantly updating the script, there really was no compromise towards Felix’s voice, vision and spirit of innovation. “Felix wanted to critique Peranakan ideals, and the basis of my transcreation was to update whatever Felix laid upon the structure, innovate it and update it, recontextualising it for today’s sensibilities,” says Big. “There’s really been a lot of care that goes into presenting the play, and the producers have also taken a lot of care in making it as Peranakan as it can be.”

“We owe it to Kuo Pao Kun who really paved the way as to how we can deal with tradition, where we must potentially look at what is still relevant, what can be adapted, or renovated or depart from, because while it’s nice to preserve traditions, there are also a lot of harmful aspects in it,” adds Alvin. “Sure, some people will like the change and some won’t, but it all boils down to negotiation and respect, where we must try new things while paying homage to the past. I believe in watching this show, the Peranakan community will resonate with the world views presented, and enjoy the contemporary theatre elements.”

One underrated element of the play is likely to be the musical numbers, where one of the biggest draws is the return of the legendary Baba GT Lye, a key member of the Peranakan artistic community, who not only forms part of the cast, but also contributed to songs for the production. “During our script reads, you could see the audience members clapping the moment Baba GT Lye stepped out onstage, because they were so excited to see him performing again,” says Alvin. “And it’s a magical experience watching him work alongside Julian Wong to work on composition and lyrics, where he would hum the tune and Julian would be able to pick up on that, arrange it, and the cast sings this moving rendition of the song. He even told Julian that out of the years he’s been working, no one has ever treated his musical contributions with as much respect.”

“The musicians really uplift the play with a soundtrack that adds value and meaning. They’re all very capable and accomplished in their own right, and when they came onboard, the creatives were all pleasantly surprised by how much it added to what was already onstage,” adds Big. “And our translators Rapheal and Melanie were also integral, where they would be so attentive to the terse and frank way Peranakans would speak, based on their history as pragmatic traders, and they would help the actors find the rhythm in their speech.”

And while purists are perfectly entitled to stick to their archival and preservation work, Alvin believes that there must also be space to modernise and innovate the culture for a new generation. “Innovation is what will allow the culture to thrive, whether it’s breathing new life into old things, or reimagining traditions. I attended a fundraiser where the ingredients used Peranakan ingredients, but the dishes innovated completely new dishes,” says Alvin. “There is a death of the Baba Melayu language, but we can revive it by putting it in the play and garnering interest again. In the past, people would accuse Stella Kon and Desmond Sim of not producing real Peranakan work because their plays were written in English, but now that’s an outdated mindset, and there is a window of support for new ideas to take flight.”

“In Singapore theatre, we have to acknowledge that we have a wealth of intercultural theatre and be proud of these traditions, but also realise we have to make it sustainable and accessible to younger generations and help them understand it is as much theirs as it is their parents’,” concludes Big. “Be it bangsawan or Peranakan theatre or any vernacular form of performance, we need to put these in the spotlight and push for our own works more. And I fully encourage more people to become transcreators as well, with more renovating of past works. This is a play that reminds us of our own innate multiculturalism, or even our own bilingualism, and how we are capable of understanding and embracing all this culture, if we’re willing to navigate the changes from the past and engage in intergenerational and intercultural dialogue.”

Mari Kita Mai Wayang plays from 17th to 19th November 2023 at the Singtel Waterfront Theatre. Tickets available here

Production Credits:

Director: Alvin Tan Assistant Director: Aidli ‘Alin’ Mosbit Playwright (Original script): Felix Chia Playwright (Transcreation/Adaptation): Zulfadli Rashid Cast: Baba GT Lye, Cynthia Lee, Frederick Soh, Karen Tan, Kimberly Chan, Loong Seng Onn, Masturah Oli, Munah Bagharib Musicians: Ahmad Shahruddin Bin Safari, Azrin Abdullah, Hafiz Jamat, Ismahairie Putra Ishak, Julian Wong, Riduan Zalani (Band Leader)