KL theatre production ‘Hungry’ blends Peranakan heritage, grief and hungry ghost festival traditions
FOOD is the lifeblood of so many experiences in our lives. It lends itself to such rich memories and emotions,” said Desmond Sim.
“Everything that is of significance in our journey through life is marked by food – our cultures, festivals, religious occasions, births, rites of passage and deaths.
Food is more than sustenance, it’s unique versions become the unique DNA of families and friends – my grandmother’s special curry, my best friend’s gift of her inimitable pineapple tarts, our mother’s Chinese New Year or Hari Raya feast.”
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The award-winning artiste is talking about his play Hungry, his first in 11 years. The 65-year-old Singaporean playwright is also a poet, short-story writer and painter.
Malaysian theatre-goers may have caught his last play staged in the country, The Swimming Instructor, last December at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (klpac).
Imprinted with traditional culture
The associate artistic director of The Actors Studio, Christopher Ling, directs Hungry, which revolves around a family of four confronting grief and buried hopes. It explores the delicate boundary between the living and the dead during the Hungry Ghost Festival.
During the festival, observed in Chinese culture during the 15th day of the seventh month in the traditional Chinese calendar and rooted in Taoism and Buddhism, families leave food offerings outdoors to appease wandering, orphaned spirits and to honour ancestors.
Accompanying the show at klpac is a free exhibition featuring photographs of Hungry Ghost Festival celebrations held around the grounds of the historic Hiang Thian Siang Ti Temple in Kuching.
Taken by Jee Foong, a street photographer based in Sarawak, the images aim to document and preserve the intricate details of the festival’s rituals to ensure future generations and the public can appreciate the stories of the festival and its cultural depth.
Sim, of Peranakan heritage, says his early years spent growing up in the extended family home instilled in him a deep-rooted appreciation for the culture. “I’m Peranakan on my mum’s side and Teochew on my dad’s side.
My dad taught us the dialects and idioms, but my early years were spent growing up in the extended family home with my mother’s family (while my parents saved up money for our own home),” said Sim.
“Those early years imprinted me profoundly with appreciation for the culture. I watched my granny dress up in full kebaya for birthday and wedding dinners, ate lots of Nyonya cuisine on a daily basis and wondered how singkeh (newly arrived) families could do without sambal belacan in their fridges.
“Because of this heritage, around a half dozen of my 40 plays have a Peranakan theme. I don’t consciously write as a Peranakan writer, but I do know enough of the inner family nuances to write plays about growing up in a Peranakan home.”
Hungry stars Gabriel Tham, Anri Too, Mark Beau De Silva and Virtuoes Romana.
Enriching outside comfort zone
Ling, 52, says he was drawn to the play because “the Hungry Ghost Festival setting lends a supernatural quality to it”. “And it hovers persistently throughout.
Also, the complexities of a family unit breaking apart at the seams, is interesting,” said Ling, who received the Anugerah Seni Negara Young Talent Award 2009 for Theatre Directing.
The co-founder and artistic director of theatre collective theatrethreesixty, Ling is also a multiple BOH Cameronian Arts Awards recipient and has directed operas, as well as musicals.
On theatre in Malaysia, Ling said: “Malaysian theatre has always been multi-culturally colourful, and we should not forget to keep celebrating this. “We all have something to say… together.
The more collaboration and working outside of our comfort zones happen, the more our local theatre landscape is enriched.
With the recent proliferation of exciting, brand new performing arts venues in the Klang Valley such as JCPAC and D’theatre, theatre in Malaysia looks set to advance forward.”
Ling has worked a few times with Sim.
“Desmond’s writing is constantly heart-warming and poignant. It is writing that speaks directly to the soul.
“He has an inherent understanding as a playwright of what it means to be human, to experience the full gamut of emotions both positive and negative. He has a knack of drawing characters that are simultaneously relatable and believable.”
On the casting and rehearsal process for Hungry, Ling said casting was done through a closed, selected process.
“As a play, Hungry requires a cast of seasoned actors. Our rehearsals began in early April, giving us the luxury of a slightly longer 2.5-month process.”
The family drama Hungry has a limited run at klpac from June 18 to 21.
On the play’s takeaway, Sim said he would like the audience to be aware that life is fleeting and regrets often come too late, adding: “Live mindfully and always express love to our families while we still can.”
