Things take a turn for the worse when young Siti is unable to pass motion and is later diagnosed with cancer. Her inability to relieve herself is echoed by the two older women, who simply do not confront their feelings and are constantly at loggerheads with each other about how to deal with Siti. In a particularly lacerating moment, the mother tells the grandmother that after Siti dies, she will move back to Malaysia as there will no longer be any relationship left between them. The themes are certainly heavy, but the tone of the play is one that is wistful rather that maudlin, advocating the idea of healing and seeking strength in shared sorrow.
For the most part, we have a fairly faithful rendering of the original text with the occasional reference changed: “Chinese New Year” logically becomes “Hari Raya” and “bee hoon” becomes “nasi lemak”. Suicide, however, takes on a much deeper religious gloss in this incarnation due to its taboo in the Muslim community; there are many references to the father going to hell for taking his life and one can only understand his mother’s refusal to accept his actions. Yet, I would have liked to see the religious angle interrogated just a little further to anchor the play in its distinct milieu – perhaps exploring how the suicide impacted upon Islamic conceptions of akhirah (the afterlife) or the practice of iddah (the traditional waiting period a woman observes following the death of her husband).
The other notable departure is the decision not to follow the play’s original ending which involves Siti’s death and a final, tearful reconciliation between the mother and grandmother. Instead, we have a newly written monologue featuring the father gazing at the scene below, shortly before taking that final fatal jump. It gives Berak a harder edge by not tying up the story neatly (for instance, it’s not apparent that Siti does in fact pass on) but I welcomed this ambivalence, and the suggestion that life itself can be messy and unfinished.
Fared’s production is taut and compelling, unfolding in just seventy minutes and packing a punch. He extracts wonderful performances from the cast—all stage veterans—who light up the stage. Siti Khalijah is magnetic as a wide-eyed girl who turns the world into her personal playground in a manner reminiscent of her animated performance in the monodrama How Did the Cat Get So Fat?.
Siti Hajar delivers a performance of quiet emotional weight as a woman forced to bear the burdens of single parenthood, while Alin imbues the grandmother with a tough yet nourishing maternal presence. Lastly, Fir treads a fine line between comic and tragic in portraying the journey of a man who simply feels he has no way out.
Production values are stellar across the board. Wong Chee Wai’s set is a sprawling mass of orange tubes that snake around like intestines, ending in a circular, anus-like orifice. It’s a powerful visual metaphor that riffs on the idea of physical, emotional and spiritual constipation that confronts each character. Safuan Johari’s score almost emerges as a separate character – the elegiac Malay ballads acting as a perfect canvas to plot the undulating architecture of grief.