Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 29 (1): 653 - 667 (2021)

SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES

Journal homepage: http://www.pertanika.upm.edu.my/

Alienation Effect in Kee Thuan Chye’sWayang Kulit Adaptations in 1984 Here and Now and The Big Purge

Arbaayah Ali Termizi, Hoo Poh Ying*, Nur Aainaa Amira Mohd Said and Faris Abdullah Sani Department of English, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Universiti Putra , 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

ABSTRACT Existing studies have acknowledged the respective influence of Brechtian epic theatre and the adaptation of wayang kulit in Kee Thuan Chye’s plays, though largely keeping them as two separate entities. This paper focuses on Kee’s adaptation of wayang kulit in his first two published plays, namely 1984 Here and Now and The Big Purge to examine its functions in generating the Brechtian alienation effect in the selected plays. The rationales behind the increased scale of wayang kulit adaptation in The Big Purge compared to 1984 Here and Now is also explored in tandem with Kee’s alleged increase in theatrical subtlety. In the findings, the adaptation ofwayang kulit in the selected plays correlates to the Brechtian alienation effect through the means of the incongruity of the wayang kulit, the role of the dalang or puppeteer and the fragmented plot structure of the wayang kulit metadrama. In The Big Purge, Kee’s increased scale of wayang kulit adaptation reflects his swerve to a more subtle style of writing as a reaction to the public perception of 1984 Here and Now and his firstwayang adaptation in the play.

Keywords: Alienation effect, epic theatre, Kee Thuan Chye, political plays,wayang kulit

INTRODUCTION ARTICLE INFO This paper seeks to delve further into the Article history: Received: 25 August 2020 relationship between the adaptation of the Accepted: 02 December 2020 Published: 26 March 2021 general form of wayang kulit in the first two

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47836/pjssh.29.1.36 of Kee Thuan Chye’s four published plays E-mail addresses: and Brechtian epic theatre. The adapted [email protected] (Arbaayah Ali Termizi) [email protected] (Hoo Poh Ying) wayang kulit scenes in the selected plays are [email protected] (Nur Aainaa Amira Mohd Said) studied under the lens of Brechtian alienation [email protected] (Faris Abdullah Sani) * Corresponding author effect to understand how Kee’swayang kulit

ISSN: 0128-7702 e-ISSN 2231-8534 © Universiti Putra Malaysia Press Arbaayah Ali Termizi, Hoo Poh Ying, Nur Aainaa Amira Mohd Said and Faris Abdullah Sani adaptation puts forth the issues of political leather puppets are manoeuvred by the manoeuvrings by initiating a state of critical puppeteer, or dalang behind the screen. He reasoning in the audience. The increased is simultaneously a playwright, director, scale of wayang kulit adaptation in The Big actor and occasionally, singer. A dalang is Purge is also analysed to examine Kee’s typically also a Dukun or Bomoh (the Malay attempt towards a subtler style of political medicine-man and spirit medium) in the playwriting. Malay community (Ibrahim, 2008). Written in the 80s, both Kee Thuan The initially experimentative grafting of Chye’s first two published plays adopted the wayang kulit came along in 1984 Here and general nuances of wayang kulit, instilling Now, where a single scene is allocated to be elements such as the wayang screen, depicted in wayang kulit style with human the dalang or the puppeteer and leather actors acting as puppets (Kee, 1987). It then puppets traditionally used in wayang kulit gained expansion in The Big Purge where performances. To date, there is no mention of wayang kulit scenes were replaced with a specific type ofwayang kulit used by Kee. the dalang manoeuvring puppets behind a Instead, it is meant as a general reference to wayang screen (Kee, 2004). The standalone his cultural identity, as remarked by Kee in scene (scene fourteen) in 1984 Here and an interview by Quayum: Now revolves the meeting between the play’s nominal oppressors, the Inner Party Later, in the 1980s, as I became members where Big Brother shows up to more aware of the importance of announce his stance on curbing a public reclaiming my Asian identity, I protest. In Purge, the wayang kulit scenes tell borrowed elements from Asian the workings between the iron-fisted Chief myths and traditional theatre for Minister and his corrupt cabinet members. my plays and some of my poems. Perceivably, both wayang kulit adaptations The play 1984 Here and Now serve to portray political trickery, as the (1984) incorporated elements of the playwright notes in scene fourteen in 1984 wayang kulit. And The Big Purge Here and Now: “Altogether, the atmosphere (1987) again had wayang kulit as a is one of foreboding” (Kee, 1987, p. 63). central motif (2005, p. 134). A similar atmosphere is rendered to the wayang kulit scenes in Purge, in which the Culturally familiar to Malaysians, Prologue opens with an actor ridiculing the wayang kulit, or sometimes called the wayang kulit adaptation as ‘Wayang Sulit’ Malay shadow play or shadow puppetry, is (Kee, 2004). a traditional art form thought to have been Kee Thuan Chye is a Malaysian brought in from Java to Southeast Asia playwright, actor, dramatist and journalist. through Cambodia, and was influenced Until 2019, Kee has published four plays, by the Indian epics of Mahabharata and 1984 Here and Now (1984), The Big Ramayana (Ibrahim, 2008). Traditionally, Purge (1988), We Could **** You Mr.

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Birch (1994), and Swordfish+Concubine (A traditional ensemble music), Kee’s (2004) (Kee, 2018). He also writes socio- plays all adopt Malay traditional narrative political commentaries, authoring Just in forms, including wayang kulit (shadow So Many Words (1992), March 8: The Day puppetry) in 1984 Here and Now and The Malaysia Woke Up (2008), The Elections Big Purge; and romanticized historical Bullshit (2013), The People’s Victory narratives (legend and myths) in his two (2019) and many more. 1984 Here and Now later plays, We Could **** You Mr. Birch (1987) is a loose adaptation of Orwell’s and Swordfish+Concubine. dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four Kee’s plays have been copiously read written in 1949. Retaining its undertone as being influenced by the epic theatre. of political suppression and basic plot Nevertheless, his adaptation of wayang structure, Kee’s rendition employs various kulit has not been comprehensively studied Brechtian techniques and wayang kulit as a dramatic technique or as a part of his adaptation for Big Brother’s appearance to Brechtian strategy. Therefore, this paper localise its content. First staged at Universiti intends to look into Kee’s adaptation of Malaya Experimental Theatre in 1985, wayang kulit through the core method directed by Krishen Jit, (Gilbert, 2001) its of Brechtian epic theatre, which is the second staging in Malaysia was conducted alienation effect. Apart from examining the in Mandarin in 2016. wayang kulit scenes through a perspective of Meanwhile, The Big Purge (2004) is a critical detachment or emotional distancing, metadrama that weaves in and out between this paper also intends to provide plausible wayang kulit and naturalist scenes. Set in explanations to Kee’s increased adoption of the allegorical ‘Equaland’, the play tells wayang kulit scenes from 1984 Here and the story of five characters from different Now to The Big Purge by examining the ethnicities embroiled in a political scheme, public perceptions of the plays and Kee’s implicitly referring to the May 13 racial riots alleged attempt to create more subtlety in and the 1987 (Gilbert, his political plays. 2001). The Big Purge was staged at Essex University Theatre in May 1988 as part MATERIALS AND METHODS of a Master of Arts course in playwriting (Lim, 2004) but has never been performed Brechtian Alienation Effect in Malaysia. Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) is a Overall, Kee’s published plays show a contemporary German playwright renowned proclivity to the Malaysian culture. Apart for his reformative ‘epic theatre’ aimed from the constant employment of cultural to initiate social reform and his theatre customs and practices, especially that of company, Berliner Ensemble. He proposed Malay origin such as pantun (A Malay verse the Verfremdungseffekt, generally known form); silat (Malay Martial Arts); joget by Willett’s translation as the ‘alienation (a traditional Malay dance) and gamelan effect’. Brecht (1978, p. 91) referred it as

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“part of the attempts being made to evolve further illustrate, Brecht drafted a chart of an epic theatre” which comprised plays that comparison between dramatic theatre and did not depend on empathy. epic theatre in the notes to the opera The John Willett contended that ‘epic Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, theatre’ was a term borrowed from Piscator, in which he proposed that the epic theatre upon which Brecht further denounced should be more narrative in nature when the entertaining quality of theatre and the compared to the plot-based dramatic theatre naturalist conceptions of ‘catharsis’ and (1978). Brecht’s aversion to the typical ‘empathy’. According to Willett, alienation Aristotelian five-act form arose from his effect is about “jerking the spectator out of belief that the typical theatre deluges the his torpor and making him use his critical audience with emotions and impairs their sense” (1968, p. 172). Brecht first introduced reasoning power. Thus, the coherence of the term Verfremdungseffekt in his essay plot must be fragmented, as he famously “Verfremdungseffekte in der chinesischen expounded: Schauspielkunst” or “Alienation Effects in The episodes must not succeed one Chinese Acting” (Brecht, 1978, p. 91), as another indistinguishably but must a reaction to Mei Lan-fang’s performance give us a chance to interpose our in Moscow in 1935. The term Verfremdung judgement. The parts of the story was coined by Brecht to explain the means have to be carefully set off against by which he achieves critical detachment, one another by giving each its own which he used to call ‘epic’ (Willett, 1968). structure as a play within a play The endeavours to translate it into English (Brecht, 1978, p. 201). have led to numerous results, some of which are ‘distancing’, ‘estrangement’, ‘alienation’ This resistance to coherence is to show and ‘disillusion’. men and their interrelations in specific In the essay mentioned, Brecht proposed circumstances by presenting itself as “a that for theatre to fulfil its instructive montage, in which each scene has a self- function, complete empathy from the contained life, and, like the segments of a audience must be hindered to retain “his worm, each is capable of life even when attitude of observing or looking on” (1978, cut off from its neighbour” (Leach, 2004, p. p. 93). This retention of critical detachment 117). In short, Brecht’s plays are presented is achieved by deliberately pointing out in the form of episodic fragmentation so the incongruous or “turning the object that each of the ‘episodes’ can be critically of which one is to be made aware, to perceived on their own. This is opposed to which one’s attention is to be drawn, from the traditional naturalistic theatre, for Brecht something ordinary, familiar, immediately argued that traditional theatre tends to be accessible, into something peculiar, striking overly sentimental and make audiences and unexpected” (Brecht, 1978, p. 143). To misidentify the events as their own. To

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Brecht this kills their ability to see existing wayang kulit, the episodic wayang kulit social issues as it is, as expounded by Esslin, metadrama and the epic acting of the dalang. “To do social good the theatre, Brecht felt, The ways through which these aspects of must be able to convince its audience that Kee’s wayang kulit adaptations contribute its examples were typical and of wide to the generation of Brechtian critical applicability” (1961, p. 21). detachment are explored. Brecht’s practices rose to popularity in In addition, reviews from researchers, Europe during the 1960s and 1970s after critics and audience who attended the staged his production visited in 1956. It performances of the plays are also sourced has since then inspired Feminist theatre and to understand the public perception of ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’ (Leach, 2004). In the plays. To also explore the relationship the context of post-colonial , Brecht’s between Kee’s increased adoption of alienation effect saw the incorporation of wayang kulit elements in Purge and his indigenous music and dance, nonlinear attempt towards a subtler form of political timeline and self-commenting characters play, critics’ reviews and interviews of Kee used to challenge European systems that are also examined to look into the rationales decimated aboriginal culture (Gilbert & behind Kee’s change in writing style through Tompkins, 2002), a trend with which Kee the adaptation of wayang kulit. Thuan Chye’s works might be identified. In tandem with Brecht’s method stated LITERATURE REVIEW above, this paper examines the adaptations Literary studies have dwelled mostly on the of wayang kulit as a means to generate thematic aspects of Kee’s plays, for instance, the alienation effect in the first two of Kee from existentialist, feminist and political Thuan Chye’s published plays, 1984 Here perspectives (Bakar et al., 2016; Rajoo, and Now and The Big Purge. In the selected 2001; Tneh, 2016). The infusion of wayang plays, scenes that adapt wayang kulit are kulit has also been discussed closely with analysed to examine their roles in distancing the subject matters of the plays which often the audience to fulfil Kee’s calls for political manifest a clash between cultural identity awareness. The scenes that adapt wayang and the dominant culture. Helen Gilbert kulit in the selected plays include scene (2001) in the anthology Postcolonial Plays fourteen in 1984 Here and Now; scene one, remarked that the wayang kulit scene in four, ten, thirteen, eighteen and twenty-one 1984 Here and Now functioned to delineate in The Big Purge. Other scenes are also the role of tradition in the strengthening of included in the discussion when necessary. Malay cultural and political power. Amy The selected scenes are close read mainly Lai (2009) likewise contended that the from three perspectives according to the scene served to underline both ethnic-based aforementioned attributes of alienation oligarchy and the tradition of obeisance in effect: the incongruities foregrounded by politics.

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This is echoed by David Tneh, who to shake theatrical illusion” (1995, p. 17). has done several studies on Kee’s cultural These studies blatantly put Kee’s plays in infusion. According to Tneh, the role of the tradition of the epic theatre but found wayang kulit in Kee’s plays is to foreground little correlations between that and Kee’s Malay hegemony through the mythical infusion of cultural elements. effect of the wayang screen (Tneh, 2017). David Tneh’s (2016) doctoral thesis All these studies have categorized Kee’s provides a more in-depth analysis of Kee’s adaptation of wayang kulit as a form of relation to Brecht by specifying Kee’s use racial identification, suggesting a resistance of Brechtian historification (the adaptation against the dominant culture by highlighting of historical narratives, proposed in Brecht’s it. Differing from these pejorative theoretical essays) to challenge dominant interpretations is Susan Philip, who read national narratives. Again, this has put Kee’s wayang kulit adaptation as “a subtle Kee’s cultural infusion as a means of way of expressing hope of empowerment racial identification. Nonetheless, it has for the people” (2012, p. 367). given substance to the use of history as As can be seen, wayang kulit is generally a Brechtian strategy in Kee’s ensuing viewed as a tool to the thematic aspects of plays, We Could **** You Mr. Birch and the plays, though how it works as a dramatic Swordfish+Concubine. In contrast, the technique remains, for the most part, significance of Kee’s adapted wayang kulit unexplored. Meanwhile, Kee’s plays have scenes from a Brechtian perspective remains been put in the tradition of the Brechtian a dearth. epic theatre. Researchers including Helen Regardless, discussions on Kee’s Gilbert, Robert Yeo, Shirley Lim and Amy wayang kulit adaptations have suggested Lai who have noticed both the Brechtian a connection to the tradition of Brechtian influence and cultural proclivity in Kee’s theatre. Helen Gilbert and Joanne Tompkins plays have mostly discussed them as two noticed that “shadow puppetry and gamelan separate entities. Among them is Shirley music were combined with various Lim who contended that The Big Purge Brechtian techniques to produce a highly showed obvious influence of Brecht’s (2004) politicized text rooted in local experience” alienation strategies through its breaking of (2002, p. 266). Studies done on 1984 Here the fourth wall and its episodic effect. Amy and Now and The Big Purge have related Lai (2009) had further elaborated Lim’s Brecht’s ‘play-within-a-play’ approach arguments by including We Could **** to Kee’s wayang kulit adaptations which You Mr. Birch in her discussion. Robert Yeo create a multi-layered narrative structure in his introduction to the 1994 publication (Gilbert & Tompkins, 2002; Lai, 2009; of We Could **** You Mr. Birch, also Lim, 2004; Tneh, 2017). Reviews made acknowledged that “Brecht’s practice on scene fourteen in 1984 Here and Now provides Kee with a model he could use (which is in the form of wayang kulit)

658 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 29 (1): 653 - 667 (2021) The Adaptation of Wayang Kulit also suggest a sense of critical detachment hence should be studied along with Kee’s through the use of puppets to represent alleged turn towards a softer approach in key characters: “human shadows replace playwriting. puppets in traditional wayang kulit and the aloofness of Big Brother was achieved by RESULTS AND DISCUSSION his appearing only on screen” (Kee, 1987, Transcending the Conspicuous p. 128). This is echoed by Tneh, who argued that Big Brother’s visual representations in Before familiarity can turn into 1984 “achieves a level of invincibility and awareness the familiar must be detachment” (Tneh, 2017, p. 125). Thus, stripped of its inconspicuousness; interpretations of the dalang and the use of we must give up assuming that puppets in selected scenes of Kee’s plays the object in question needs no seem to provide an inkling of the alienation explanation. However frequently effect. recurrent, modest, vulgar it may be Hence, a deeper look into the alienating it will now be labelled as something functions of Kee Thuan Chye’s adaptation unusual (Brecht, 1978, p. 144). of wayang kulit is necessitated, not only by the lack of studies done through the Both 1984 Here and Now and The Big perspective, but also by the need to read Purge, written in a gap of less than four years, Kee’s works as dramatic oeuvres that entail deal with the issues of racial hegemony and more technical aspects of presentation Big-brotherism (Gilbert, 2001; Lim, 2004; than subject matters alone. The use of the Philip, 2012). The similarity of subject shadow screen, the addition of the role matters distinguishes Kee’s wayang kulit of dalang and the puppets in Purge—all adaptation in his first two published plays 1 these would have a bearing on how Kee’s from his later shift to historical adaptation political ideas are conveyed to his audience to address deep-rooted issues in the Malay through the form of drama. Brecht’s vision culture. The manoeuvred nature of wayang of theatre as a means of initiating political kulit was consciously tapped to foreground reform is similar to Kee’s. Therefore, a official corruption and manipulation, as juxtaposition of Brecht’s methods and noted by Kee in hindsight, Kee’s wayang adaptation could potentially I incorporated these elements in add more profundity to Kee’s infusion of 1984 Here and Now and The Big cultural elements and perhaps that of other Purge to depict the shadowy world Malaysian playwrights. Meanwhile, since of manipulative powers. In a sense, the alienation effect entails a generalizing of subject matter, the increased scale of 1 Kee’s ensuing plays, We Could **** You Mr. Birch wayang adaptation in Purge may be a and Swordfish+Concubine adapt the assassination of colonialist, J.W.W.Birch and myths from the Malay means to enhance political subtlety and Annals respectively.

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ruling politicians are like the dalang the play, albeit as a shadowy figure. The who is all-powerful because he representation of Big Brother is made dictates the story, the script, the entirely symbolic throughout the play by performance. He manipulates. the means of televised media, as directed He theatricalises reality. What by Kee in scene one: “Upstage left is a huge you see is what he conjures. The picture of Big Brother. Both the TV set and Wayang Kulit is for me, therefore, the portrait remain as permanent features of a powerful metaphor of power play the set” (Kee, 1987, p. 1). By hindering his (Quayum, 2005, p. 135). direct appearance on stage, Big Brother’s characterization is alienated from himself The mythical nature of wayang kulit, and real-life politicians, subdued to a along with its visual appeals of the shadows, symbol of god-like ruling power that can be enables a dramatization of reality as a means applied to both nobody and anybody. of estrangement, showing the absurdity of the As argued by Helen Gilbert, “Big otherwise seemingly commonplace political Brother appears to be omnipotent because he scenario. As Jacqueline Lo argued: “The is paradoxically everywhere and nowhere. wayang performance gave the impression of His remote image transmitted through the a shadowy realm where manipulation took wonders of capitalist technology signals place and conjured an ambience different the realization of a police state in which from that of the common people” (2004, p. disciplinary practices are internalized by 90). While this defamiliarizing wayang kulit the citizens” (2001, p. 251). The wayang metaphor pervades both plays, the primitive kulit finesse which hinders Big Brother’s form of dalang or the all-powerful narrator direct appearance is a continuation of the comes first in the role of Big Brother in non-naturalistic strategy, maintaining a Kee’s appropriation of Orwell’s Nineteen critical distance that strikes the audience as Eighty-Four. both otherworldly and poignantly relevant. In 1984 Here and Now, the Tneh also remarked, “By not appearing in experimentative scene fourteen which person, he achieves a level of invincibility consists the only wayang kulit scene and detachment that is further strengthened throughout the play, employs actors by his control and repeated appearance on mimicking puppet movements behind the television” (2017, p. 124). screen, accompanied by percussive wayang Each aspect in scene fourteen puts forth kulit music and serunai, a traditional Malay the sense of incongruity. The scene, which wind musical instrument (Kee, 1987). Big is technically a rough adaptation of wayang Brother enters in an Inner Party meeting kulit, achieves its semblance to the art form where he imparts his scheme to curb the primordially through the utilization of the people’s demonstration with more draconian shadow screen that denies the convenience measures. The scene sees Big Brother’s only of perceiving the actors or characters simply physical appearance on-stage throughout as they are. As Helen Gilbert remarked:

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The inner party members are played Therefore, with the finesse of by actors behind a shadow screen, wayang kulit, scene fourteen compels which serves to magnify their the audience to critically detach itself physical dimensions while also instead of going entirely into the plot by introducing a disjunctive element deliberately accentuating the incongruous. since traditional wayang characters It is thus in this stupor-denying setting are not humans but rather mythical that the three IPMs finally give voice beings such as gods and demons to the oppressive undertone of the play, (2001, p. 251). quoting Orwell: “Freedom is slavery”; “Discipline is strength!” (Kee, 1987, pp. This is accompanied by Kee’s adoption 63-64). In Brecht’s terms, the wayang kulit of Brechtian acting strategy, or ‘epic acting’ adaptation in 1984 Here and Now underlines which demands that the actors stay separated the workings of politicians in power as from and clarify an attitude towards the something that is absurd and demands roles they play (Butler, 1991). In 1984 Here questioning. By jerking the reasoning power and Now the distancing is achieved by the of the audience to work, the incongruous characters mimicking puppet movements: ensures that nothing that one’s accustomed “Their dialogue is delivered in heightened to is taken for granted. manner, their physical mannerisms broad, puppet-like” (Kee, 1987, p. 62). The self- Wayang Kulit for Subtlety revealing actions of the Inner Parties characters necessitate a skeptical judgement A few circumstances vary, the of their characters, answering to the stealthy environments are altered, but Man tone of the scene and its theme of political remains unchanged. History applies maneuvering. As observed by Brecht to the environment, not to Man. regarding the role of actor, “acceptance or The environment is remarkably rejection of their actions and utterances was unimportant, is treated simply as a meant to take place on a conscious plane, pretext (Brecht, 1978, p. 97). instead of, as hitherto, in the audience’s sub- The ‘play-within-a-play’ wayang kulit conscious” (1978, p. 91). The Inner Party structure has considerably developed in members strike the audience as odd through Kee’s following oeuvre, The Big Purge, in their blatant lack of visual recognizability which the single puppetry scene grew into on screen. This is echoed by Kee simply a full-fledged frame story that encapsulates naming them IPM 1, 2 and 3, suggesting a more realistic inner story. Though the the characters’ lack of power in contrast wayang kulit scenes have almost identical to Big Brother’s entrance whose “shadow nature in both plays, both showing corrupt looming larger than the rest, towering over politicians in the middle of plot-hatching, all” (1987, p. 63). the scale of adaptation and faithfulness

Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 29 (1): 653 - 667 (2021) 661 Arbaayah Ali Termizi, Hoo Poh Ying, Nur Aainaa Amira Mohd Said and Faris Abdullah Sani towards the authentic form of wayang kulit as argued by Lim, “In The Big Purge, Kee has drastically increased in Purge with abandons the ‘authority’ of the British the additions of the dalang, or wayang canonical pretext of his first play for the kulit narrator, and puppets representing ‘authority’ of the Malay traditional pretext characters. of the wayang” (2004, p. 11). The rationale behind this is likely These critiques drove Kee’s overall multifaceted, some of which could be swerve towards more political subtlety. If deduced from the public perception of the timespan in which Kee’s four published 1984 Here and Now which critiqued Kee’s plays were written was to be divided into two dichotomous racial stance and his lack of phases according to Susan Philip’s dating subtlety, as Nagara remarked, “The play (2012, p. 358), grouping 1984 Here and Now ignores the fact that real inequalities within (1984) and The Big Purge (1988) in the first each race are greater in extent and variety phase: ‘the 80s’; and We Could **** You than formal and circumstantial inequalities Mr. Birch (1994) and Swordfish+Concubine between the races” (as cited in Kee, 1987, (2004) in the second: ‘the 90s and onwards’, p. 138). This is an iteration of Fadzillah there would be seen between the phases a Amin’s view, which opines that the play distinct change of core strategy from the fails to delineate injustices that “cut across adaptation of wayang kulit to the parodic racial lines” (as cited in Kee, 1987, p. 129). retellings of historical episodes. While Even Kee himself has admitted to Asiaweek both answering to the alienation effect, that “The play was loaded heavily on the historical adaptations enable Kee to put side of the Proles” (as cited in Kee, 1987, p. forth his political commentaries in a more 129). In fact, the public disfavour has much elliptical way because it essentially indicates to do with Kee’s Orwellian appropriation. a distinct time period. Nevertheless, Purge The direct borrowing of the party-non- has already shown an earlier endeavour party dichotomy from Orwell’s novel led to enhance ‘implicitness’ through the Kee to the dilemma of race-based self- interference of the wayang kulit universe. identification. In Brecht’s terms, the environment from Moreover, Orwell’s model is essentially which the playwright’s issues originated a western one, which is, to some audience, is displaced by the metaphorical Equaland too far-fetched to the Malaysian political which comprises the mythical power of state of affairs, as criticized by Kua Kia the dalang and his puppets. As Lim also Soong: “This is where the play tended to remarked: grate in places... it blunts the object of our The theatrical performance of own critique of the Malaysian reality” (as Malaysian realpolitik as puppetry cited in Kee, 1987, p. 114). It was perhaps offers a performative distance from these criticisms, that led to Kee’s drastic real-life political commentary, localization of his play since The Big Purge, while drawing upon the teleological

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meaning of the static universe of persuade you to think in a certain good and evil… (2004, p. 11). manner. Audiences don’t like that. They think this is low art. So, as I Consequentially, Purge is deemed a continued to write more political mellowed-down iteration of the playwright’s plays I realized (that) (Hoo Poh first published play, 1984 Here and Now Ying, personal communication, (Lim, 2004; Philip, 2012). Moreover, it October 14, 2019) signifies Kee’s return to the more dramatic side of theatre despite his emphasis on Providing an alternative to presenting politics. This uncannily mirrored the political issues, the dramatic environment of dramaturgical evolvement of Brecht (1978) the wayang kulit came timely as Kee resolved himself, who in his last published collection to a subtler approach in playwriting. The of writings entitled “Die Dialektik auf shift from the naturalistic story by Orwell to dem Theater” (Dialectics in the Theatre), embracing the narrative potentials of wayang proposed to change his earlier naming of also signifies Kee’s maturing employment of the ‘epic theatre’ to ‘dialectical theatre’ Brechtian strategies. Consequentially, the because the former sounded too serious standalone scene fourteen in 1984 Here for the type of theatre he wanted. Wulbern and Now saw its expansion into a six-scene (1971) viewed this as Brecht’s rediscovery frame story in Purge while both focus on of the importance of ‘naivete’ (the dramatic depicting misconducts of politicians, as will side of theatre), which however, was not be discussed in the following section. actualized due to his soon followed demise. When asked about the reason behind his The Actor-Narrator and his softer approach during his recent talk in Fragmented Tales Universiti Putra Malaysia in 2019, Kee, likewise, attributed it to having realized the In this epic theatre serving a non- importance of a less grave approach: aristotelian type of drama the actor will at the same time do all he can When I wrote my first political play, to make himself observed standing I did it in the form of an agitprop. between the spectator and the event It is very direct. It is in your face. (Brecht, 1978, p. 58). But I later learned that that might not be the best way to get things The Big Purge opens with an actor across because people don’t like coming out of behind a wayang kulit screen the playwright haranguing them. and states “above all, let me emphasize one They want to be able to make very important point – this is only a story. up their own minds. This play Fiction.” (Kee, 2004, p. 22). The breaking of in a sense is quite didactic. It is the fourth wall decides the alienating tone of trying to teach you something or the play, as Amy Lai argued that the opening

Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 29 (1): 653 - 667 (2021) 663 Arbaayah Ali Termizi, Hoo Poh Ying, Nur Aainaa Amira Mohd Said and Faris Abdullah Sani speech “not only creates a metadrama to the the wayang kulit screen, the alienating effect ‘realistic’ drama in it, but also played on in Purge is generated by the dalang, who is the ‘fictitiousness’ of this ‘realistic’ play” traditionally the wayang kulit narrator and (2009, p. 44). puppeteer. As Tneh remarked, “…the thrust The prologue introduces the wayang kulit of the role of the dalang goes beyond the structure of the play, with the actor reiterating usual literal and metaphorical interpretation, the sense of political manoeuvrings in 1984 to that of a storyteller and manipulator who Here and Now by making fun of the wayang has reclaimed his part in the national affairs kulit adaptation: “Did I say ‘Wayang Sulit’? of the state regardless of affiliation” (2017, Sorry, I mean Wayang Kulit. Wayang Sulit pp. 127-128). means secret show; In Equaland, no secret, With the wayang kulit metadrama everything transparent” (Kee, 2004, p. 23). gradually revealed by the dalang via This heralded the following scenes that speeches and songs throughout the play, the constantly went in and out of the world dalang in Purge is comparable to the singer, of wayang kulit and that of realism, in the Arkadi Tcheidse in Brecht’s renowned play, tradition which Brecht termed “each scene The Caucasian Chalk Circle, who narrates for itself”, “montage” (1978, p. 37). As the internal parable that intertwines with the Shirley Lim opined, “Influenced chiefly frame story. The role of the dalang is multi- by Brechtian strategies of Alienation, the layered. He is all at once the storyteller play is deliberately structured to convey that propels the story, the manipulator who the awareness of being performance rather controls the puppets/characters and the than realistic or naturalistic representation” commentator who critiques the characters (2004, p. 6). The six wayang kulit scenes in every now and then. Taking up the role of The Big Purge include scene one, four, ten, epic actor from the narrator in the Prologue, thirteen, eighteen and twenty-one, which the dalang narrates with a blatantly sarcastic form the frame structure of the play. The tone. Take the following examples: more realistic inner story between the five The Chief Minister is a genius. characters, Rong, Joan, Runid, Mawiza and Ravinen set in the fictitious Equaland He has been Chief Ministers, is constantly segmented by the grafting of wayang kulit scenes, which takes place And head of the ruling Equaland Equa every two to five scenes. The progression Party, of the naturalistic plot is hence interrupted For donkey’s years (Kee, 2004, p. 24). every now and then by the disjunctive wayang kulit episode to retain the critical The most brilliant Minister that the CM detachment of the audience. hand-picked Unlike 1984 Here and Now which resorts Is a hard-sneezing man with a nose like to human actors mimicking puppets behind a prick (Kee, 2004, p. 37).

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Brecht argued regarding epic acting DALANG brings on the relevant puppet that an actor must “act in such a way that (Kee, 1987, p. 25). nearly every sentence could be followed DALANG takes off MINISTER by a verdict of the audience and practically WITHOUT PORTFOLIO puppet every gesture is submitted for the public’s and brings on MINISTER OF approval” (1978, p. 95). The dalang’s role INFORMATION (Kee, 1987, p. 27). is thus that of an epic actor who with every utterance, guides the audience towards a It should be noted that all puppet certain deduction or perception of events characters in both 1984 Here and Now and characters, just as Susan Philip remarked and The Big Purge represent authority “the Dalang is more than a mere storyteller. figures whereas ordinary folks are played He is also a commentator” (2012, p. 367). by humans. This naturally gravitates the In control of the puppets representing the spectators’ attention to the wayang kulit Chief Minister, Minister Without Portfolio, scenes that tell the inner workings of Minister of Information, Minister of corrupt politicians; more so than the overall Education and the Minister of Home Affairs, plots revolving the relationships between the dalang’s juggling between his roles as characters. In a way, hence, prominence all of the above guarantees a generalization is given to the wayang kulit metadrama which bring the audience beyond the of concept which Shirley Lim termed dramatic façade of the play into Kee’s “multiply distanced, re-re-representation of intended discourse. As echoed by Amy Malaysian politics” (2004, p. 9). Lai, the puppetry scenes in The Big Purge While the use of human actors in scene differ from 1984 Here and Now because fourteen in 1984 Here and Now compels the they involve a dalang, whose roles further acting to be done in a “puppet-like” manner blurred the boundary between the playwright to resolve dramatic illusion, there is no and the actor (2009, p. 41). Reverberating such need in The Big Purge where puppets Kee’s ultimate calls for political awareness, are used. Taking Artaud’s impressionistic the wayang kulit adaptation provides a concept, Shirley Lim contended that the perspective that puts the power back into characters played by puppets underwent the hands of the people. As Susan Philip a ‘systematic depersonalization’ whose proposed: “dialogue cannot be taken as imitating or representing real persons but as evoking the Kee presents them, through the ‘power of a system’” (2004, p. 10). The lack framework of the shadow puppetry, of sentimentality and personal will of the as being manipulated by an outside political figures is thus emphasised, as can force, which is able to critique their be seen in the dalang’s nonchalant handling actions. This points, perhaps, to the fact that the power should be of the puppets: in the hands of the people, and that

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they can, if they choose to exercise dalang whose role includes that of an actor, that power, become the dalangs a narrator, a puppeteer and a commentator themselves (2012, p. 367). embodies Brecht’s recommendation for epic actors, bringing the audience in and out of In short, the play-within-a-play structure the dramatic world of the play to that of their of The Big Purge answer to the Brechtian realities, nudging them to critically judge fragmentation needed to dissolve dramatic similar issues happening in the actual world. illusion while resorting to the audience’s The play-within-a-play structure of the reasons. The narrative nature of epic acting wayang segments the plays into independent and Kee’s political commentaries are parts that demand specific attention, echoing embodied by the dalang who is, at the Brecht’s subversion of traditional naturalist same time, the actor, puppeteer, narrator plot structure. and commentator. Making strange the Kee’s attempt to be more eclectic in backstories of political maneuverings, the his political representation in Purge is a wayang kulit episodes highlights the need to response to the critiques of 1984 Here and critically review existing political traditions, Now. Kee’s persistent search for dramatic suggesting that the possibility of reform lies material from the Malay culture may stem in the power of the audience from a need to establish his cultural identity as a Malaysian writer of Chinese origin CONCLUSION who writes in English; and perhaps also a All in all, the adaptations of wayang kulit wish to reach out to his Malay audience. in Kee Thuan Chye’s published plays, Nevertheless, the drastic increase in the 1984 Here and Now and The Big Purge scale of adaptation of wayang kulit in Purge answer to the Brechtian alienation effect by signifies a more matured employment of retaining the critical detachment needed by Brecht’s strategies to enhance subtlety while the audience to perceive the significance of retaining the audience’s critical perception power play depicted in Kee’s wayang scenes. of the playwright’s commentaries. The faceless, corrupt politicians hiding Consequentially, the metaphorical behind the screen of the wayang blurred displacement of real-life politics through the individual recognizability of each actor, the wayang kulit universe helped Kee to dissolving their pejorative characters into relay his hope for reform, or awareness in a general representation of public figures the least, in a less didactic, more entertaining whose integrity demands questionings. The tone to his audience. presentation of political manoeuvrings in the form of wayang kulit alienates Kee’s ACKNOWLEDGEMENT audience from the everyday perception This work was supported by Geran of politics and from its customary and Putra Berimpak 2018 (UPM/800-3/1/ systematic vices that they have long taken GPB/2018/9660100) from Universiti Putra for granted. The god-like presence of the Malaysia (UPM).

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