Huzir Sulaiman: Writer, Actor and Director

Background

Huzir Sulaiman was born in Kuala Lumpur in 1973. He had his study at Princeton University. His father, Sulaiman Abdullah, is a veteran lawyer who served as Malaysian Bar Council President. His mother, Mehrun siraj, is known as a professor, lawyer, consultant for United Nation agencies, NGO activist and also serves with the SUHAKAM (Human Rights Commission of Malaysia).

Career

Sulaiman used to host an afternoon talk show on WOW FM. He founded a theatre company named 'Straits Theatre Company' in Kuala Lumpur in 1996. The theatre' s first success was Sulaiman 's first work, 'Lazy Hazy Crazy' (1997). He then pursued with his second master piece, 'Atomic Jaya' (1998) and 'The Smell of Language' (1998), his third theatre piece. 'The smell of Language' is a postmodern play which questions the roles of author and focuses on the controversy in Malaysia's political arena when the chief minister of Malacca was alleged for raping a fourteen-year-old girl in 1995. Sulaiman wrote six more plays with the latest ones appeared in 2002 in his anthology, 'Eight Plays'. Also in 2002, he was commissioned by Singapore Arts Festival to write a piece about the Japanese Occupation of the country during the World War II. He then produced 'Occupation' for that purpose in the same year depicts this period through the prism of the author's own grandparents and links the trauma with an episode in which the grandmother falls in love with her future husband and becomes occupied by this love. Besides than writing plays, Sulaiman also writes for film and television. In 2003, he moved to Singapore and has worked as actor and director. He was also one of the co-founders of 'Checkpoint Theatre', based there, of which he is now Joint Artistic Director. Sulaiman's works consist the dark humor, political satire and surrealistic twists. Sulaiman is now working on a novel about the artist-c counterculture in Malaysia and Singapore at the turn of the millennium. He holds at present the 2005 Writing Fellowship by the National University of Singapore and The Arts House. Sulaiman is currently living in Singapore. His wife, Claire Wong, is a Malaysia-born Singaporean stage actress.

List of works:

• Lazy Hazy Crazy

• Atomic Jaya

• The Smell of Language

• Hip Hopera

• Notes on life and love and painting

• Election day

• Those four sisters Fernandez

• Occupation

• Whatever that is

A brief description on 'Atomic Jaya'

Huzir scripted this play when he fantasizes about what happens if his homeland decided to build its own atomic bomb.

The story starts by introducing Dr. Mary Yuen, the protagonist of the story. She is a Malaysian Chinese Catholic who was educated in USA. She was caught in a dead end job, zapping prawns and cocoa beans, until a military General whose main motivation was to be like Napoleon, gave her a visit. He invited her to help develop Malaysia's own atomic bomb.

            She takes up the tempting top-secret offer, meets two other scientists, Dr. Saiful, a laidback and nonsensical Malay, and Ramachandran, an Indian who tries hard to prove himself (but fails), as well as many other people who were interested or disinterested in the project for various reasons. The play continues to circle around this very quote of “Chinese do the work, Malay gets the credits and Indian get the blame” Mary Yuen explains that it was very easy to make the bomb, such that even A-level students with the Malaysian KBSR syllabus could do it. But the problem lies with the resources and the intention to make it the  

            Meanwhile, USA was getting suspicious and news of Malaysia buying nuclear resources were spreading through the media. The Malaysian minister covers it up with nonsensical speech. At the same time, Dr Mary Yuen meets up with several dealers in search of supply materials. Suspicion grows and even more nonsensical cover-ups ensued. Mary Yuen finally found supplies from a German smuggler who has supplies from Russia, where the scientists were poor and needed the money to feed their children. USA became even more suspicious, and Malaysian minister gave more excuses, which shows even more of his stupidity.

            Mary Yuen begin to have doubts about the purpose of building an atomic bomb, and USA, having gotten some evidence of Malaysia’s attempt to build the bomb, sends threats. Malaysian minister continues to give excuses. Mary Yuen finally decides to sabotage the plan, and since she was the only character who was really involved, no one else notices. The failure leads to mass finger pointing, as the minister, general and the other scientist tries to find someone to blame, without suspecting Mary Yuen at all.

            The story ends with the different characters going their separate ways, with the Chinese, Dr Mary Yuen leaving the country, as the brain drain, Malays like the minister, the General and Dr Saiful taking the credit, and Dr Ramachandran getting the blame, migrating to Australia under a cloud of suspicion.

Source:

suhadafadzil.blogspot.com. 6 May 2014. Web.

www.literaturfestival.com. 4 May 2014. Web.