On the final performance of ‘Accidental Death of an Activist’ on October 19th, amidst thunderous applause and standing ovations, Wild Rice founder Ivan Heng walked to the stage to join the cast and co-director Glen Goei.
Ivan thanked adapter and co-director Jo Kukathas, who was not present, for transforming Dario Fo and Franca Rame’s ‘Accidental Death of an Anarchist’ from an 1970 Italian comedy into what was performed that day.
Unreservedly, he implied the elephant in the room.
The original preview of the show was to be held on the 26th and 27th of September, with seats sold out weeks prior. But three days before they would unveil ‘Accidental Death’ to the public for the first time, an announcement was sent.
“The licensing process has taken longer than expected,” Ivan Heng wrote on the Wild Rice website, “To secure our license to perform, we made careful edits to the script whilst ensuring that the integrity of the play has not been compromised.”
In Singapore, the lack of a licence essentially means your play has been banned from being performed. They were forced to cancel their first two shows.
Excellent in Every Aspect
‘Accidental Death of an Activist’ is many things, and unlike many plays which tackle many things, it is excellent in being all of them. It is a gut-busting comedy, a clever satire, a thought-provoking commentary, an engaging piece of theatre, and a truly Singaporean story.
It should be pointed out that the play is not about Singapore, as the cast themselves come out to say, carrying placards saying this is in Italy, despite whatever cultural references they make.
The story is set in a police station where an anarchist had, after questioning, suspiciously fallen to his death. As the police officers and staff scramble to sweep this incident under the rug, the Madman appears and upends the entire station with his antics.
Thus leads to two and a half hours of pure chaos, entertaining every step of the way, with sharp biting commentary on police brutality, activism, censorship, the death penalty, and a dozen other things that were simply too fast to catch.
In a technical sense, there wasn’t a flaw in sight. Everything was seamless, from the set design, to costuming, to the precisely-timed surtitles everytime a character spoke Malay/Chinese/Tamil.
But the true strength of ‘Accidental Death’ lies in Jo Kukathas’ brilliant writing and the perfectly cast performers.
The play had been nicely ‘Singaporised’, not just through the characters speaking Singlish but also acknowledging their different ethnicities through the universal cultural marker, cursing in their mother tongue.
To hear Siti Khalijah Zainal’s Bertozzo shout out obscenities in Malay, or Lim Kay Siu and Sugie Phua’s Superintendent and Pisani barrage each other in Cantonese, adds a spice of flavour that immersed you in this Italy-not-Singapore world.
The way the play injected Singapore, as an identity and culture, into these Italian characters felt so refreshing and made it so relevant in a way that could have so easily backfired.
It should have been no surprise to Wild Rice that such a production as this would have at least garnered some raised eyebrows from the authorities. They’re no stranger to this type of attention. Their previous production ‘G*d Is A Woman’ received similar scrutiny.
In fact, it can be considered some sort of poetic irony considering one of the play’s main themes is the suppression of activism. Close to having never seen the curtains rise, the play somehow defied the odds.
In his last show speech, Ivan mentioned that they had only two weeks for rehearsal on the new edits before the opening show. You would have never guessed it from how polished the performers were.
Standout Among Standouts
Brilliantly written characters are elevated by stunning performances from the entire cast that made each character memorable, with not a single moment of weakness throughout.
Whether it’s the easily irate Bertozzo (Siti Khalijah Zainal), the sultry journalist Felleti (Munah Bagharib), the affable Constable (Krish Natarajan), or the morally dubious Superintendent and Pisani (Lim Kay Siu and Sugie Phua), all played their roles excellently.
I still chuckle to myself thinking about Pisani and his childhood train, in which he wore an expression that I could only describe as childhood whimsy, as an actual toy train came rolling across the stage (such a small but precisely fine-tuned detail that only could have come from Glen Goei).
But there is a clear standout among the cast.
Ghafir Akbar as the Madman makes this play. Dashing around the stage, breaking out into song and dance on a whim, and tirelessly spitting out line after line of dialogue, with insane effortlessness made us all exhausted just watching.
He was chaos incarnate, a trickster with a purpose, whose sense of activism, righteousness, and justice is often overshadowed by his antics. There’s a delicate balance to the whole role he has to maintain, ensuring the audience knows wherethe Madman’s madness is directed.
Ghafir’s sense of the character, expressed with every fibre of his physical being, is impeccable, delivering a performance that is worthy of the ticket price alone.
Closing his speech, Ivan Heng thanked the audience and the collective support of people who have attended their shows and donated or contributed to Wild Rice for the past twenty years of their existence.
It was only through their continued legacy that ‘Accidental Death of an Activist’ could be shown, as it was proof that their intentions have been the same as it had always been since it first started twenty years ago.
They want to express an opinion.
Expressing Their Opinion
As a Malaysian, I had no doubt most of the Singaporean references were lost on me, the meanings of which I could only infer from the reaction or laughter of the audience.
And yet I still felt I could easily follow along, a testament to how easily Wild Rice productions can translate for a Malaysian audience. This is not surprising, considering Ivan Heng’s rise to prominence started in Malaysian theatre with Emily of Emerald Hill.
But there were two moments which were particularly notable, in which the audience let out a genuine and audible gasp. They were shocked, appalled, and maybe even impressed that ‘Accidental Death’ went there.
The first was the Madman stripping off his clothes and revealing a red shirt with a smiley face underneath (see Jolovan Wham).
The second was the Madman mentioning Section 376A (Google Section 377A).
I did not know it then, but only after learning about the context of these specific references, and more I must have missed, that Jo’s changing of the title makes sense.
True to its word, the play is truly about Italy, not Singapore.
It doesn’t deviate from the plot or structure of the original. Story beats play out the same way, though maybe reframed or recontextualised, but remain generally consistent with the original story. It could still be considered faithful adaptation, just with some modern Singaporean references thrown in.
Despite whatever controversial or touchy topics they discuss, at the end of the day, it was still ‘Accidental Death of an Anarchist’ through a Singaporean lens.
It only truly became its own entity at the end.
The cruel and chaotic ending of the original would have no doubt reflected Italian sentiments at the time, but here, fifty years later, it would have been mean spirited and incongruous.
This prompted an ending change that capped off the play perfectly.
The characters, or rather the actors, break the fourth wall and begin to have an honest discussion about the play itself. It shouldn’t end with a bomb that may or may not set off, prompting a difficult discussion on the morality of authority figures and the argument on reformation vs revolution, because that’s not what Singaporean activism is.
Singaporean activism is asking why no one believes in activism in the first place. There is clearly a strong stigma in Singapore surrounding not just activism, but discussing politics and advocacy in general. A study by the IPS (Institute of Policy Study) found over 90% of respondents in Singapore would never organise political activities. China came in second with 83.9%.
Discussions and different opinions are easily stifled through societal pressure alone, where the norm is so strong and established that any doubt towards it is looked at either with ill intention, or apathy.
‘Accidental Death’ then challenges one of the biggest hindrances to Singaporean activism – apathy. Singaporeans’ apathy towards activism, and particularly apathy towards activists themselves. It’s a powerful message that needed to be said, and I don’t think Wild Rice could have conveyed it any better.
With top-of-the-line production quality, a standout cast headed by an exciting star, and a genuinely delivered message that cuts deep, Wild Rice has once again demonstrated why they are at the top when it comes to Singapore theatre.
‘Accidental Death of an Activist’ ran from 26 28 September to 19 October. It was co-directed by Glen Goei and Jo Kukathas, adapted by Jo Kukathas, and stars Ghafir Akbar, Siti Khalijah Zainal, Munah Bagharib, Krish Natarajan, Lim Kay Siu, and Sugie Phua.
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