★★★★★ Theatre Review: Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice by Jeffrey Cheah Performing Arts Centre

Sarah Ruhl’s retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth comes alive under Ghafir Akbar’s inventive and imaginative staging, and the cast’s deeply sincere performances. Duration: 90 minutes For more than two thousand years, the story of Orpheus and Eurydice has endured as one of Greek mythology’s great stories of love and loss. Orpheus, the gifted musician, travels into the Underworld to retrieve his wife Eurydice … Continue reading ★★★★★ Theatre Review: Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice by Jeffrey Cheah Performing Arts Centre

★★★★☆ Theatre Review: The Secret Drawer by Instant Café Theatre Company

New documentary theatre work excavates Malaysia’s buried history one memory at a time. There is a cleverness to The Secret Drawer that becomes apparent almost immediately: the production makes its black-box space feel like somewhere secret. Designed by producer Tan Cher Kian and directed by Jo Kukathas, the stage resembles an underground lair or private archive, with objects and figures surrounding Ling Tang and Lim … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Theatre Review: The Secret Drawer by Instant Café Theatre Company

Interview: ‘Eurydice’ director Ghafir Akbar speaks on Greek, grief and the future of Malaysian theatre

When Jeffrey Cheah Performing Arts Centre (JCPAC) approached Ghafir Akbar about presenting a production, he already knew which play he wanted to pull from the back of his mind: Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice, “I love Greek plays and I love this play,” he says. “But one of my concerns was also that sometimes when you think about classic plays, the language can be quite demanding, and … Continue reading Interview: ‘Eurydice’ director Ghafir Akbar speaks on Greek, grief and the future of Malaysian theatre

Malaysia Theatre: SUSAN by FSKi Works

Do you care who she is? Or just what she did? A woman stands before us. She has two dead husbands behind her, a murder case in front of her, and one thing she refuses to give away: her name. That is the provocation at the heart of SUSAN, FSKi Works’ full-length world premiere opening this week at Hush The Theatre in Petaling Jaya. Following … Continue reading Malaysia Theatre: SUSAN by FSKi Works

Malaysia Theatre: Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice by Jeffrey Cheah Performing Arts Centre

What happens when one of the oldest love stories in the Western canon is told from the woman’s point of view? This September, Malaysian audiences can find out as Jeffrey Cheah Performing Arts Centre (JCPAC) presents Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice, a bold, funny and ultimately heartbreaking reimagining of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Directed by award-winning theatre-maker Ghafir Akbar, the production runs from 18–27 September … Continue reading Malaysia Theatre: Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice by Jeffrey Cheah Performing Arts Centre

Malaysia Theatre: An interview with ‘The Secret Drawer’ creators Lim Tiong Wooi, Ling Tang and director Jo Kukathas

There are some family stories that sit in plain sight. Others are deliberately put away. For Ling Tang, it was a drawer she was told never to open. For Lim Tiong Wooi, it was a box of almost 60 documents tracing her father’s years of detention, rejection and separation. And for Jo Kukathas, it was a box of her own father’s belongings sitting in her … Continue reading Malaysia Theatre: An interview with ‘The Secret Drawer’ creators Lim Tiong Wooi, Ling Tang and director Jo Kukathas

★★★★★ Theatre Review: Fragments of Tuah by Mark Teh and Five Arts Centre

Mesmerising docutheatre production delves into the myth of Malayan national hero Hang Tuah while asking who gets to shape history, and why we continue to believe the stories we inherit. Duration: 90min Mythological figures have long served as vessels for morality, identity and national aspiration. Their stories are repeated until they begin to feel inseparable from the societies that tell them, their contradictions smoothed over … Continue reading ★★★★★ Theatre Review: Fragments of Tuah by Mark Teh and Five Arts Centre

Esplanade’s The Studios 2026: An Interview with Mark Teh on retelling legends of national heroes in Five Arts Centre’s ‘Fragments of Tuah’

Hang Tuah has occupied a singular place in the Malaysian imagination for centuries. The legendary warrior appears in school textbooks, literature, films and political speeches, often held up as the embodiment of loyalty, courage and duty. It is precisely because he is so deeply embedded in the national consciousness that theatre-maker Mark Teh never imagined he would make a work about him. “He’s a mythic … Continue reading Esplanade’s The Studios 2026: An Interview with Mark Teh on retelling legends of national heroes in Five Arts Centre’s ‘Fragments of Tuah’

★★★★☆ Theatre Review: Teater Normcore – Odisi Romansa by Ridhwan Saidi

Ridhwan Saidi crafts a haunting, cosmic space drama about androids to remind us what it means to be human. Ridhwan Saidi’s Teater Normcore: Odisi Romansa begins with surveillance. Before the theatre fully settles into darkness, before language and philosophy take over the stage, a grainy video emerges onscreen like recovered memory. Through the detached gaze of a CCTV camera, we follow a man and woman … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Theatre Review: Teater Normcore – Odisi Romansa by Ridhwan Saidi

Arts of Malaysia: An interview with writer/director Ridhwan Saidi on Teater Normcore – Odisi Romansa

There is something fitting about the long journey of Teater Normcore: Odisi Romansa, a play about distance, time, and memory that itself had to wait years before reaching the stage. First written in 2019, the production was disrupted by the pandemic, before finally returning in 2026. And for playwright-director Ridhwan Saidi, that passage of time was never something to erase. “I wrote Odisi Romansa back … Continue reading Arts of Malaysia: An interview with writer/director Ridhwan Saidi on Teater Normcore – Odisi Romansa