Malay-Muslim Singaporean couple based in London crowdfunding to take play to Edinburgh Fringe
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Faizal Abdullah in Who Took My Malay Away?, an identity play on being Malay-Muslim in Singapore.
PHOTO: HECTOR MANCHEGO
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SINGAPORE – A Malay-Muslim Singaporean couple based in London are crowdfunding to take their play to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August.
Faizal Abdullah and Khai Ramli, who met while running theatre collective Hatch in Singapore, have lived in London since 2018 and produced Siapa Yang Bawa Melayu Aku Pergi?, or Who Took My Malay Away?
The identity play on being Malay in Singapore premiered at the London Vault Festival in January 2023. It will run at the Tech Cube Zero in Summerhall from Aug 4 to 13, joining another Singapore play, Do Rhinos Feel Their Horns?, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland.
Khai, 36, producer of Who Took My Malay Away?, says: “The people we’ve met – in university, at work, on our travels – think that a Malay must be Malaysian and that Singaporeans are just Chinese. The performance started off as an interrogation of Malay identity and heritage, but has ended up being a deeper look at the tension of being Malay-Muslim and Singaporean.
“It is about Singapore as we know it, the real Singapore, and that Singapore is multicultural, complex, unique, imperfect and special.”
The lecture-performance is rooted in Faizal’s experience as a Malay-Muslim Singaporean who is frequently expected to be able to speak Mandarin.
It has been developed since 2019, and is created with a non-Singaporean audience in mind. Faizal, 39, uses the performance to share his research, quoting books and academic papers, and citing historical and geographical facts.
The romanisation of the Malay script and the loss of the Malay language are lamented. The efficiency of the MRT and Malay weddings in void decks are mentioned.
Faizal says: “I’ve never worked on a lecture-performance, so this was an experiment in form and presentation. It allows me to be Faizal Abdullah, the Malay-Muslim Singaporean theatre-maker who has made a show that talks about the different facets of his identity, and not just be a fictional character.”
It will be his first time performing at Edinburgh, but not Khai’s. In 2021, she produced Patricia Gets Ready (For A Date With The Man That Used To Hit Her), a play directed by Kaleya Baxe about a woman finding her voice after an unexpected meeting with her former abuser.
The couple want to raise £2,800 (S$4,700) to help defray expenses, and have managed to collect £1,748 as of last week.
Khai says audiences of all ethnicities will be able to find a foothold in the play. “The themes explored – colonisation, identity, indigenous displacement, lost culture, heritage and language – are universal and something that is shared. It will be something people from different origins and backgrounds can resonate with.”
To support Faizal and Khai, donate at str.sg/i389
