Time to laugh at ourselves

THE staging of Huzir Sulaiman’s play Atomic Jaya has gone from a single thespian in its first outing to a duo, and soon, nine students.

Atomic Jaya is about Malaysia wanting to build its own atomic bomb. It pokes fun at everything Malaysian, and has reached some notoriety for the satirical incisiveness.

When it was first staged in 1998, it was performed in Kuala Lumpur by one thespian, Jo Kukathas, playing 14 characters.

In 2003, Huzir and Claire Wong under Checkpoint Theatre performed it in Singapore and KL, with cameos by Gani Abdul Karim (in Singapore) and Fahmi Fadzil (in KL).

According to Huzir, excerpts of his play were also included in the Singapore-Malaysia collaboration Second Link, which was curated by Leow Puay Tin. Atomic Jaya has been performed several times by university, college and student groups in Malaysia and Singapore.

“In London, it was read by Yellow Earth Theatre, directed by Zahim Albakri, as part of a Malaysian festival there.

“Earlier this year, an Argentinian director asked me permission to perform it in New York City with an international theatre company based there. I think that will be at the end of this year or early next year.” says Huzir from Singapore.

Next month, under experimental theatre director Chee Sek Thim, the final-semester students of the Department of Performance and Media in Sunway University College offer their take on this rollercoaster of a humorous play.

They’ve been rehearsing these past two months at five days a week for their production.

Past student productions at the department include Three Fat Virgins Unassembled (October 2006) directed by Zahim Albakri, The Coffin is Too Big for the Hole (March 2007) and Equus (May 2008) directed by Melissa Teoh.

The directors are well-known professional theatre practitioners who also teach at the college.

Would nine actors change the flow on stage?

“I don’t think any individual part is more difficult than the others — but the real challenge for performers is keeping up the energy while still connecting with the audience on some level of reality, no matter how absurd.

“It’s a mad, mad play but it has its roots in the reality of the Malaysia that we all know and love,” says Huzir, a permanent resident of the island republic.

Does nine change the underlying seriousness of the script? “Not at all. It’s a play that is open to many different stagings, I think.”

Huzir says that Malaysians or segments of the society have not taken offence at his digs at race, bureaucracy, idiosyncracies in Atomic Jaya “probably because at the end of the day, it really celebrates Malaysia in all its craziness”.

“It may be critical, but it’s written with a lot of love.”


You can catch Atomic Jaya from Oct 9-12 at the Roof Top Theatre, 4th Floor Sunway University College, PJ. Time: 8.30pm (Thurs-Fri), 3pm & 8.30pm (Sat) and 3pm (Sun). Admission is RM10. Call 012-2496476.