The Playwrights Database
KEE THUAN CHYE (1954 - )
Nationality: Malaysianemail: Click here to contact Website: Click here
Literary Agent: n/a
Kee Thuan Chye has been wearing many hats in his life - as an actor, playwright, stage director, journalist. His acting credits over the last 30 years include speaking roles in the films "Entrapment" and "anna and the King". Other international productions he has acted in include the Hallmark TV-movie "Marco Polo" and "Secrets of the Forbidden City" for the BBC and the History Channel. He will be seen next in the film "Sell Out!", directed by award-winner Yeo Joon Han. On stage, he has acted in countless productions but the one role he is proudest of is that of Willy Loman in arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman". as a playwright, he is best known for "1984 Here and Now" and "We Could **** You, Mr Birch". Both performed to full houses when they premiered. "1984 Here and Now" is included in the international anthology "Postcolonial Plays" edited by Helen Gilbert and published by Routledge UK. "We Could **** You, Mr Birch" has been a text studied in Malaysian universities since the mid-1990s. another play, "The Big Purge", was featured in "Typhoon 4", a playreading festival in London held in May 2005. His new play, "The Swordfish, Then the Concubine", was among the top 5 in the International Playwriting Festival 2006, organised by the Warehouse Theatre in the UK. Excerpts from it were performed at the festival. Kee has also written numerous radio plays many of which were broadcast on RTM in the 1970s. He has also directed about a dozen plays for the theatre. He is the author of "Just In So Many Words" (a collection of his writings in the press) and "Old Doctors Never Fade away" (a biography). His poems have been published in numerous anthologies and journals at home and abroad. an extract from his novel in progress "a Sense of Home" is included in the anthology "New Writing 10", published in the UK by Picador (2001). another extract has appeared in "The Merlion and the Hibiscus", published by Penguin India (2002). He has been a judge and regional chairperson of the prestigious Commonwealth Writers Prize. He was on the panel in 1997 and 1998 when the final judging was done in London and Jamaica respectively. In 1998, he was invited as a guest writer to the Melbourne Writers Festival, the Brisbane Writers Festival, and Spring Writing in Sydney. In 2001, he was invited to the inaugural Standard Chartered International Literary Festival in Hong Kong. It is as a journalist that he makes a decent living. He worked at the New Straits Times for 21 years and is currently associate Editor of The Star.
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below is a list of Kee Thuan Chye's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
1984 Here &Amp; Now Big Purge, The We Could **** You, Mr Birch1984 Here &Amp; Now
1984 Here and Now is based on George Orwell's classic 1984, but is "Malaysianised" through its setting, content and address. In this play Big Brother reigns supreme and controls the minds of the people. Wiran attempts to break Big Brother's tyrrannical power, and joins the Opposition Party.He is played out and caught in the end, and has to denounce his beliefs so that he will be one with Big Brother's ideals. The play is a fast-paced political satire. It was staged to packed houses in 1985, under the scrutiny of the Special Branch police because it dared to criticise governmental policies openly. Poignant and well-written,1984 Here and Now moves the readers' heart and soul to root for the underdog and hope that there'll never be a Big Brother in Malaysia.
Notes:
1st published in 1987 by K Das Ink, Petaling, Jaya, Malaysia
1st Produced:
Universiti Malaya Experimental Theatre 1985
Organisations:
Five arts Centre
1st Published:
Times Editions - Marshall Cavendish >>>, 2004 981232609X
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Political Satire Satire
Parts:
Male: 7 Female: 3 Other: ensemble
Further Reference:
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Top of PageBig Purge, The
In Equaland, the Chief Minister is firmly in charge. So much so that using the state machinery at his disposal, he can inflate a small issue into a big one in order to keep the populace in line, especially the non-Equas (the immigrant races) who are institutionally discriminated against in Equaland. Despite the oppressive nature of his rule, Thang Rong, a non-Equa, joins forces with his Equa friends to fight the system even as a national crisis is developing that threatens to break out into racial riots. The crisis is of course manipulated by none other than the Chief Minister himself. "The Big Purge" is a biting satire of Malaysian politics enacted with humour, human actors and Wayang Kulit (Shadow Puppetry).
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Essex University Theatre 1988
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Times Editions - Marshall Cavendish >>>, 2004 9812326103
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Political Satire Satire
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: 5 human character, chorus and master pupeteer
Further Reference:
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Top of PageWe Could **** You, Mr Birch
The central premise of this play is an episode from history - the murder of James Wheeler Woodford Birch, the first British Resident in colonial Malaya. We Could **** You, Mr Birch makes for a different play as it doesn't narrate a story, rather it alternates between real-life drama and historical episodes. Here we have the characters questioning the authenticity of the historical facts presented, making the audience wonder how real history really is. at the end J.W.W. Birch is murdered but the facts surrounding his killing, as the readers know them, becomes questionable. Switching between reality and fiction, legend and history, Kee Thuan Chye's play makes the audience think about the realities of life, and how history can be subjected to a writer's interpretations.
Notes:
1st published in 1994 by Kee Thuan Chye, Petaling, Jaya, Malaysia
1st Produced:
Experimental Theatre, Komplek Budya Negara, Kuala Lumpar 1994
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Times Editions - Marshall Cavendish >>>, 2004 9812326286
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Political Satire Satire
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: cast of 14
Further Reference:
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