HUZIR SULAIMAN

Born in 1973,he 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 awards and international recognition. He currently lives in Singapore.

His father is Haji Sulaiman Abdullah, who was born G. SrinivasanIyer, a Tamil Brahmin who later converted to Islam. Sulaiman is a veteran lawyer who served as Malaysian Bar Council president. His mother is HajjahMehrunSiraj, who has served as a professor, lawyer, consultant for United Nations agencies, NGO activists and a Commissioner with the Human Right 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.

Sulaiman, who also writes for film and television, moved to Singapore in 2003.  He has worked as an actor and director and was one of the co-founders of Checkpoint Theatre, based there, of which he is now Joint Artistic Director.  Following the completion of an epic historical play about Singapore's failed attempt to gain independence from Great Britain in 1956, Sulaiman is currently at work on a novel about the artistic counterculture in Malaysia and Singapore at the turn of the millennium.  The author holds at present the 2005 Writing Fellowship by the National University of Singapore and The Arts House. He lives in Singapore.

Atomic Jaya

Written and directed by Huzir Sulaiman, this play is a political satire and a broad-based comedy about Mary Yuen (played by both Karen Tan and Claire Wong), a scientist recruited by the government of Malaysia to build the country’s first atomic bomb. With both actresses taking on multiple roles portraying a myriad of comical and satirical characters that come into her life, Mary Yuen begins to face self-doubt and conflict as she questions the building of such a bomb.

Sulaiman is known to have a very observant and analytical take on his subjects and Atomic Jaya is no different. However, this time around, he also injects humour – both broad and political – eliciting laughs at the slapstick moments as well as the witty dialogue.

Sulaiman also directs both the actresses effectively, at times incorporating a kind of mirror effect where both actresses are literally speaking the same dialogue, and at times having the actresses take over each other’s role mid-scene. It is through these clever techniques that two actresses are able to present to us a full-fledged play with a variety of quirky characters.

The actresses themselves, Wong and Tan, both display great skill in portraying no fewer than a dozen characters between them. Sporting a multitude of accents, mannerisms, body language, gestures and speech patterns, both actresses bring to life each and every person they play on stage.

The only slight problem I had was that there were some characters that were better portrayed by one actress than the other, and the difference between the portrayals was sometimes rather obvious. Tan tried explaining it at the Q&A session as a form of human interaction, whereby one sees/hears a person differently from the way another does. I’m not completely convinced by that argument, and feel that the actress best suited for that role should have carried it till the end.

The surprising thing about Atomic Jaya is that it was written by Sulaiman about 15 years ago and is still well received today. Did he know he was writing something so timeless all those years ago? I asked during the Q&A session. He replied that he didn’t. He merely wrote what was relevant and happening around him at the time. Sulaiman’s observant eye is probably what makes Atomic Jaya so funny and insightful, from the distinct comical traits of his characters to the words he employs in the dialogue.

It isn’t every day that a local play, about local people and local issues, comes along that is as funny or more so than the best-heralded comedy from the West. All right, the play is really about our neighbours, whom we in Singapore used to share a nation with. So there’s a cultural similarity there – and better yet, a reason for Singaporeans to see a very funny, insightful play that’s ultimately about themselves.