More to Read on Huzir Sulaiman (ATOMIC JAYA)

                                                             Prodigious playwright/director/actor  Huzir Sulaiman

Okay, there were THREE members of the audience who made a major show of not enjoying one of the finest satires I’ve seen staged anywhere. Someone whispered that they were from City Hall, there to monitor the performance for offensive, subversive, or pornographic content. After the recent fiasco over its ill-advised attempt to ban the Instant Café Theatre from the city of KL (thanks, Mr Mayor, for speaking out on behalf of good sense and reversing the ban; I insert a round of applause for that silver lining on an inquisitorial dark cloud), it’s understandable that City Hall would be feeling defensive.

Keeping sewers clean, streets swept, and petty traders on their toes isn’t quite as glamorous or exciting as intimidating the fancy-talking faggoty arty-farty fringe. However, what one person labels “offensive” another calls “hilariously honest.” You have to really hate how you look to object so strenuously to your own reflection. Art’s primary function is to reflect our lives. Everyone ought to know that. Certain artistic approaches may work more like distorting mirrors but being able to laugh at your own comical aspects means your ego is healthy and comfortable with itself.

Claire Wong as Mary Yuen,
Huzir Sulaiman as General Zulkifli

All true art is subversive, reclaiming for the individual the power the State constantly attempts to steal. Everyone knows that if art is subservient rather than subversive, most likely it’s mere corporate propaganda. And in response to the question of what constitutes “pornography,” all I can say is: “Honi soit qui mal y pense.” Evil to whomsoever thinks evil.

Enough! We won’t allow City Hall to steal the show, no matter how badly it wants in on the limelight. I want this to pass as a review, not just a rave. So how did I like Atomic Jaya’s new incarnation?

Enormously! The original version was more or less a 14-character monodrama: a litmus test of any actor’s ability, agility and nerve, sort of like tightrope-crossing Niagara Falls on a unicycle. This Checkpoint Theatre production features Claire Wong and Huzir Sulaiman on a breezy tandem ride through Bolehland – with crisp digital images meticulously crafted by director Casey Lim and flashed on a paper screen as a kinetic backdrop (the state-of-the-art, high-resolution Panasonic projector produced startlingly clear images). It also has Fahmi Fadzil playing a double rôle as a canteen makcik and patriotic singer.

While the original version was supercharged with manic intensity and a stark, dark surrealism, this new production heightens and broadens the comedy, thus increasing its entertainment value without detracting from the script’s satirical incisiveness. And in any case it’s doubly pleasurable to watch two consummate performers tackle the main characters instead of one.

What gives Atomic Jaya a solid core of substance beyond the guffaws, sniggers and belly laughs is the play’s underlying seriousness as anthropological commentary. The fact that it opened in Kuala Lumpur on August 6th – on the 58th anniversary of Hiroshima, when 80,000 human lives were destroyed by an atomic bomb dropped by the United States Air Force, followed by another over Nagasaki three days later which decimated horrific thousands more – was a grim reminder to us all that we’re still living under a nuclear sword of Damocles (not “umbrella” as some may pretend).

The mind-boggling insanity of squandering trillions on an ongoing program of Mutual Assured Destruction – instead of redirecting every available resource towards the alleviation of suffering caused by simple lack – has its roots in the malignant human ego when it takes on exaggerated nationalistic proportions. Can the laser surgery of sharp-tongued humor excise the tumor of ruinous pride and megalomaniacal ambition.

Explosive performance

Perhaps not, but weapons-grade satire produces a chain reaction of transcendental consciousness among those it infects with despair-banishing mirth. And even the deadliest strain of militant pomposity cannot withstand well-aimed ridicule, though it will try its damnedest to outlaw and suppress it.

On the strength of the three or four plays (and one short film, That Historical Feeling by the prolific Huzir Sulaiman) in which I’ve seen Claire Wong act, I’d place her amongst the top ranks in both hemispheres. The precision, sensitivity and vitality she infuses into each rôle makes her – like Jo Kukathas, who created the original characterizations – an extraordinary shapeshifter.

Who can forget her Dr Saiful from UKM (“Oh, you are discussing philosophy. Very interesting. For example, ‘Men are from Besut, Women are from Dungun.’ I also like philosophy.”)? Or her thumb-twiddling malapropic minister (“Why should we import the highly enriched Iranian? We already buy the Persian carpet and the Persian cat from the Iranian so they become highly enriched at our expense.”)?

Claire Wong, consummate shapeshifter

In two seconds flat she visibly gained 200 pounds as former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: “We have the might, and we have the right, and we will not hesitate to fight for the right to our might, and our might alone. Ask not what your country can do for you; rather, ask what our country can do to your country.”

But as nuclear physicist Dr Mary Yuen, Claire Wong was 100% the real McCoy. No problem passing her off as a Chinese Catholic girl from Ipoh who just happened to idolize Lord Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, Max Planck, Albert Einstein, and the entire subatomic pantheon.

Huzir Sulaiman was in top comic form as General Zulkifli (with his classic Napoleon Complex and unforgettable lines like, “I want to get to the bottom of this matter. Until the bottom is reached, the top cannot be happy.”); and the excitable Delhi Polytechnic graduate, Dr Ramachandran (“If you vant to take yumbrage, make sure this taking of yumbrage is correct and prahper. Yumbrage simply cannot be taken at vhim or vhimsy. You vill vaste the yumbrage.”)

He had a spot of trouble getting an exact fix on the extremely sleazy Mr Bala, and his Otto (the low-grade European) could have been further fine-tuned; but he outdid himself as a whole stream of newsreaders from the BBC, CNN and RTM – and as a police officer addressing a group of protestors (all 7 of them) with a loudhailer: “This is an illegal assembly. I order you to disperse. This is your first warning. Tangkap mereka semua.” An immortal characterization in only four lines.

Noraini, the canteen operator at Syarikat Perniagaan Atomic Jaya Sdn Bhd, was played in drag by Fahmi Fadzil who turned in a laudably restrained performance. Fahmi also did a superb job as a nattily besongkoked patriotic song-rendering robot, as instant palm trees waved in the electronically generated background.

Director Casey Lim’s wizardry with digital design is matched by a fine intuition for injecting just the right symbolism with almost subliminal subtlety. The choice of a solitary hibiscus flower (Malaysia’s national emblem) as central motif was an inspired one. Closeups of the stamen evoked understated phallic imagery and mimicked the mushroom cloud that would later dominate the entire backdrop with chilling effect. From nationalistic egocentricity to testosteronal displays of potency – just by changing camera angles on a hibiscus flower – pretty neat!

When all the elements of a play work together so efficiently (and with such apparent effortlessness) to produce an aesthetically satisfying synergetic gestalt, we are reminded that Creation is infinitely wise and perpetually self-perfecting. So what if the country or even the whole goddamn planet is temporarily in the hands of Sharkey and his perception-challenged henchmen?  The vision quest only makes sense and carries any value if it bears the ring of truth – and Huzir Sulaiman’s Atomic Jaya rings true for me. Go see it if you haven’t. And even if you have, go see it again.

sources :http://blogcritics.org/theathre

Point About Huzir Sulaiman

Huzir Sulaiman (born in 1973) is a Malaysian actor, director and writer. One of Malaysia's leading dramatists, acclaimed for his vibrant, inventive use of language and incisive insight into human behaviour in general and the Asian psyche in particular. His plays, often charged with dark humour, political satire, and surrealistic twists, have won numerous awardsand international recognition. He currently lives in Singapore.

His father is Haji Sulaiman Abdullah, who was born G. Srinivasan Iyer, a Tamil Brahmin who later converted to Islam. Sulaiman is a veteran lawyer who served as Malaysian Bar Council president. His mother is Hajjah Mehrun Siraj, who has served as a professor, lawyer, consultant for United Nations agencies, NGO activists and a Commissioner with the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia.

For a short time in the early part of this decade, he hosted an afternoon talk show on WOW FM, a now-defunct Malaysian radio station.

He is currently married to Claire Wong, a Malaysia-born Singaporean stage actress.

He is best known for his works "Atomic Jaya", "The Smell of Language", "Hip-Hopera" the Musical, "Notes on Life and Love and Painting", "Election Day", "Those Four Sisters Fernandez", "Occupation" and "Whatever That Is" which have been published in his collection of "Eight Plays" by Silverfish Books. He also contributes articles to the The Star.

Antares is radioactivated yet again by Huzir Sulaiman’s masterpiece, ATOMIC JAYA

Since March 1998 when Atomic Jaya first opened at the original Actors Studio Theatre (now reclaimed by the primordial ooze), too many things have gone badly for the world. So when something bucks the global trend of failure, destruction and disaster – when something goes very well indeed – it’s a call for huge celebration and rejoicing.

A sure sign that something is going very well indeed is when you see nothing but cheerful faces leaving their seats at intermission, and there are far more grins than frowns at the end of the show.

Literary Works By Lloyd Fernando

Lloyd Fernando's Published Works

Novels  

Fernando, Lloyd. Scorpion Orchid. Kuala Lumpur: Heinemann, 1976. Singapore: Times Books, 1992.  

Fernando, Lloyd. Green is the Colour. Singapore: Landmark Books, 1993. Kuala Lumpur: Silverfish Books, 2004.  

Play  

Fernando, Lloyd. “Scorpion Orchid, the Play.” Petals of Hibiscus: A Representative Anthology of Malaysian Literature in English. Ed. Mohammad A. Quayum et al. Kuala Lumpur: Pearson Education, 2003.  

Short Story  

Fernando, Lloyd. “Surja Singh.” The Merlion and the Hibiscus: Contemporary Short Stories from Singapore and Malaysia. Ed. Mukherjee, Dipika, Kirpal Singh and Mohammad A. Quayum. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2002.  

Edited Anthologies  

Fernando, Lloyd, ed. Malaysian Poetry in English. Kuala Lumpur: English Department, University of Malaya, 1966.  

Fernando, Lloyd. ed. Twenty-Two Malaysian Stories: An Anthology of Writing in English. Kuala Lumpur: Heinemann Educational Books (Asia), 1968. Petaling Jaya, Selangor: Maya Press, 2005.  

Fernando, Lloyd, ed. New Drama One. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1972.  

Fernando, Lloyd, ed. New Drama Two. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1972.  

Fernando, Lloyd, ed. Malaysian Short Stories. Kuala Lumpur: Heinemann Educational Books (Asia),1981. Petaling Jaya, Selangor: Maya Press, 2005.  

Literary Criticism  

Fernando, Lloyd. “New Women” in Late Victorian Fiction. University Park, PA:Pennsylvania State University Press, 1977.  

Fernando, Lloyd. Cultures in Conflict. Singapore: Graham Brash, 1986. 

SOURCES : 

http://myais.fsktm.um.edu.my/4582/  

Fernando, Lloyd. Green is The Colour.Kuala Lumpur: Silverfish Books,2004.Print.

Bottom of Form

Bottom of Form

Summary of Scorpion Orchid by Lloyd Fernando

The days of laughter ,of sharing ,of blunt comradeship-had they ever been? They been ,they had,Tok Said,he cried.We loved each other like brothers....
     Like children..
     No,it's not true.We believed.'

       Sabran,Santi,Guan Kheng and Peter - four young men united by the bonds of friendship,brought together in the uniquely multicultural society of Singapore.About graduate from university ,they are caught in political upheaveals of the 1950.These are uncertain times:still recovering from the Japanese Occupation,Singapore is now ready to fight for Independence from the British.
      As they watch their countrymen confront each other,tearing the country apart ,they face up to reality of their multicultural society .Against a backdrop of violence and hatred ,each embarks on an arduous journey of self discovery ,to reconcile deep -seated cultures and traditions with a new emerging sociery.In their quest for their true selves ,the bonds of their young manhood are sorely tired.
     Written in a dynamic and evocative style,Scorpion Orchid takes us back to those tumultuos days in early 50s when a nation was trying to assert its identity.

'Fernando's text energizes [Lord] Jim's story ,providing the "other words" that Jim lacked, and thereby paving the way for a more optimistic for intercultural contacts.' (-R.Kurtz in Conradiana)

Source : Fernando,Lloyd.Scorpion Orchid.Singapore,Kuala Lumpur ;Times BooksInternational,                                        1992.Print .
  

MORE TO ADD FOR ''GREEN IS THE COLOUR" by LLOYD FERNANDO

Llyod Fernando’s second novel ,Green is The Colour ,completed almost two decades after his first novel,Scorpion Orchid In Green is the colour,fresh violence erupts in the racial riots in Malaysia (13 May 2013).Again, a set of multi-racial characters is used to develop the novels ideas.Yun Ming ,the Chinese who hasn’t been absorbed into the system as the government official is beginning to question the dominant discourse ,in particular ,ideas on unity which the authorities ate touting .Dahlan ,once his university mate and now a lawyer looks with contempt on Yun Ming’s afflication with the political powers.Dahlan himself tries to bait the conscience of the authorities by speaking out on the need for religious tolerance after the members of Chinese religious sect and their leader,Ti Shuang being arrested not because of any crime they commited but because they appear to authorities to be a threat to public security .Omar the second important Malay character ,fed up with what she deems the decandence of Western ways which have tarnished the race, seeks return to spiritual protection of fundamentalist Islam. Important as these male characters are it seem to me that Fernando gives prominence to the woman character, Siti Sara.A large portion of the last segment of the novel is told in her first person narrative or seen through her concsiousness.

When the novel opens,the violence engendered by the riots has not ceased .Roadblocks necessitate detours tension is so high that is does not take much to ignite fresh eruptions. The country itself appears to have been divided into zones even as its multi-racial populace huddle into safe spaces.Against such a scenario,we are not surprised that some of the main characters (Siti Sara,Dahlan) undergo the horrors of rape,incarceration and torture.But over above this physical violence,is the more insidious violence that is done to men’s minds and their powers of clear and sincere expression. Language has been debased into counterfeit coinage in order to mask lies or purvey-half truths.as dahlan see it “I have lived all my life by words.I have seen make them do anything they wanted. That the evil I have fought.

No real connection between people can be possible when there is so much muddle and so little willingness to be clear.Fernando skillfully evokes an atmosphere of fear and suspicion in which many prefer to be listeners rather than risk voicing deeply –felt truths .These self-imposed silences are volubly filled by other voices such as that Wan Nuruddin,the secretary General in the Department of Unity,discoursing confidently on Confusion ethics and loyalty to the government.In the post May 13^th ambience ,an artificial togetherness has been created to prevent more painful soul searching .Siti Sara admits that’s she develops and clung to the use of plural personal pronoun because it stirred feeling and love for her fellow citizens whether Malay,Chinese,Indian or Eurasian.In fact “ she had embraced a specious feeling  of togetherness with people in the abstract to cloak her unease,to disguise her semi-instinctive need not to know.”Like Yun Ming,she begins to see that official rhetoric merely covers  the facts that racial lines are clearly drawn so as to reinforce a sense of them” and “us”.in this context ,the shadowy figure of another women,Neemlambigai alias Fatimah binti Abdullah whose body neither her relatives nor the Religiuous Department would claim,haunts the reader as a sad reminder of intolerance and bigotry on all sides.Her family considers her an outsider because of her traversing of religious and racial barriers and the Religious Department will not accept her as being of the faith since there is no proof of conversion.Dahlan himself  discovers that it is not so easy to simply say, “ I don’t care for you beliefs,I will bury her.

The individual in such a society is constantly under surveillance .Nearly all the main characters have a sense of being watched. The leitmotif of eyes is skullfully manipulated  to reinforce an Orwellian sense that one’s every move known ,noted and filled away for future reference .Panglima,Political Secretary to the Minister Of Home Affairs ,whose basilisk stare unsettle even it mesmeries has files on everyone.Such an atmosphere breeds paranoia ,even madness.The more sensitive members of the society against the tension and strain having to choose one’s words before speaking.Dahlan we learn,had already had a nervous breakdown while still an undergraduate.Siti Sara,the returnee from American university ,who now lectures in a local institution  ,feels as if she is under the close scrutiny of collegues, students and even her own husband ,Omar who wants her to quit job,follow him to Tok Guru Bahauddin’s community in Jerangau. That her internal turmoil threatens to spill over is conveyed I various intances.looking at the flowers in the compound of her kampong to which she has returned to seek some respite she feels as if the hibiscus exploded in her field of vision …..One flower glowed so intensely bright that is seemed aflame and she gazed at it thunderstruck .She stood before a molten furnace door..It was inexpressibly wonderful to the point of being terrifying and steered away from the disquieting splendor,fearing madness.”

The novel‘s many scenes of violent sexual encounters.For example,between Yun Ming and Sara, and Sara and her husband show the desperate coming together of people  whose inner lives are intensely disturbed .Yun Ming violent possession of Sara is like an urgent effort to transcend loneliness and the consciousness that one has been pawn in the political games of the powers that be. Omar takes Siti Sara with unseeing eyes in narcissistic frenzy. A refusal to see other points of view propells him towards the confined space of Tok Guru Bahauddin ‘s domain where one can be away from the tarnishing contact with Western.

Source :

 Fernando,Lloyd.Green Is The Colour .Kuala Lumpur ; Silverfish Book , 2004.Print

SUMMARY OF GREEN IS THE COLOR (LLYOD FERNANDO)

                                                                           

       Lloyd Fernando's Green is the Colour is a very interesting novel. The country is still scarred by violence, vigilante groups roam the countryside, religious extremists set up camp in the hinterland, there are still sporadic outbreaks of fighting in the city, and everyone, all the time, is conscious of being watched. It comes as some surprise to find that the story is actually a contemporary (and very clever) reworking of a an episode from the Misa Melayu, an 18th century classic written by Raja Chulan.

      In this climate of unease, Fernando employs a multi-racial cast of characters. At the centre of the novel there's a core of four main characters, good (if idealistic) young people who cross the racial divide to become friends, and even fall in love.There's Dahlan, a young lawyer and activist who invites trouble by making impassioned speech on the subject of religious intolerance on the steps of a Malacca church; his friend from university days, Yun Ming, a civil servant working for the Ministry of Unity who seeks justice by working from within the government.

       The most fully realised character of the novel is Siti Sara, and much of the story is told from her viewpoint. A sociologist and academic, she's newly returned from studies in America where she found life much more straightforward, and trapped in a loveless marriage to Omar, a young man much influenced by the Iranian revolution who seeks purification by joining religious commune. The hungry passion between Yun Ming and Siti - almost bordering on violence at times and breaking both social and religious taboos - is very well depicted. (Dahlan falls in love with Gita, Sara's friend and colleague, and by the end of the novel has made an honest woman of her.)

      Like the others, Sara is struggling to make sense of events :Nobody could get may sixty-nine right, she thought. It was hopeless to pretend you could be objective about it. speaking even to someone close to you, you were careful for fear the person might unwittingly quote you to others. if a third person was present, it was worse, you spoke for the other person's benefit. If he was Malay you spoke one way, Chinese another, Indian another. even if he wasn't listening. in the end the spun tissue, like an unsightly scab, became your vision of what happened; the wound beneath continued to run pus.

     Although the novel is narrated from a third person viewpoint, it is curious that just one chapter is narrated by Sara's father, one of the minor characters, an elderly village imam and a man of great compassion and insight. This shift in narration works so well that I'm surprised Fernando did not make wider use of it.The novel has villain, of course, the unsavoury Pangalima, a senior officer in the Department of Unity and a man of uncertain racial lineage (he looks Malay, has adopted Malay culture, so of course, that's enough to make him kosher!). He has coveted Sara for years, and is determined to win her sexual favours at any cost.

The novel is not without significant weaknesses. It isn't exactly a rollicking read, and seems rather stilted - not least because there are just too many talking heads with much of the action taking place "offstage", including the rape at the end, which is really the climax of the whole novel.

     If we're interested in Yun Ming, Dahlan and Omar it is because of the contradictory ideas they espouse, but in each case their arguments could have been explored in greater depth and the characters themselves have been more fully fleshed.

      The plot of Green is the Colour never really holds together as well as it might but seems to be perpetually rushing off in new directions (as actually do the characters!) without fully exploring what is set up already. (I was particularly disappointed that we don't get to spend more time with Omar in the commune.)

But the strengths of the novel more than makes up for these lapses.

There's been a lot of talk about local authors not being brave enough to write about the great mustn't-be-talked-abouts of race, religion and politics in Malaysian society. Here's one author who was brave enough to do just that. (And look, hey, the sky didn't cave in!)

      Here's an author too who was able to think himself into the skin of people of different races - how many since have been able, or prepared, to make that imaginative leap?Here too is an author who is able to convincingly evoke the landscape of Malaysia both urban and rural in carefully chosen details.

Above all, though, one feels that here is an author who says what needed to be said. Heck, what still needs to be said!Here, he's using Dahlan as his mouthpiece, but the sentiments are clearly the author's own :

All of us must make amends. Each and every one of us has to make an individual effort. Words are not enough. We must show by individual actions that we will not tolerate bigotry and race hatred.

source : http://mliegreenisthecolor.blogspot.com

Get To Know More About Lloyd Fernando

                                          LLOYD FERNANDO BIOGRAPHY

                                                                     

Lloyd Fernando is a MALAYSIAN but he was born in Sri Lanka in 1926, and in 1938, at the age of twelve, he migrated to Singapore with his family. This early migration across the Indian Ocean had an enriching influence on Fernando, the writer and scholar, as it was to plant the seeds of a transcultural, diasporic imagination in him at an impressionable age. Life was moving along at a steady pace, and Fernando continued his schooling at St Patrick’s, but the Japanese occupation of Singapore from 1943 to 1945 dealt a severe blow, interrupting his formal schooling and, most tragically, costing his father’s life in one of the Japanese bombing raids. Following his father’s death, Fernando started working as a trishaw rider, construction labourer and apprentice mechanic, to support himself and the family. He also joined the Ceylon branch of the Indian National Army, not impelled by any ideology but out of a sheer necessity for self-sustenance.

After the war, Fernando completed his Cambridge School Certificate and embarked on a school teaching career. In 1955, he entered the University of Singapore, graduating in 1959 with double Honours in English and Philosophy. In 1960, he joined the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur as an assistant lecturer, and returned to the same post four years later, having obtaining a Ph.D. in English from the University of Leeds, England. In 1967, he was elevated to Professor and Head of English at the University of Malaya, posts he held until 1979. People retire at Malaysia at 55, and so when it was time for him to retire, Lloyd didn’t want to have to continue on a yearly contract, and not be certain of anything. He decided to take up law. He went to England and studied law at City University and then at Middle Temple, coming back with his law degrees. He joined a firm, and eventually started his own practice here, which he continued right up to the time he had a stroke, which was in December 1997.

 Source : http://mliegreenisthecolor.blogspot.com/2009/04/lloyd-fernando-biography.html