by Alfian Sa'at

Synopsis

This collection of four plays by Alfian Sa’at explores the themes that have become a hallmark of the playwright’s work: national identity, racial relations, and the resistance of individuals against authoritarian systems. In The Optic Trilogy, the surfacing of buried secrets and repressed memories profoundly alters the way a man and woman see each other. In Fugitives, the members of a family discover that their self-definition relies on their interactions with ‘outsiders’ who exist beyond their comfort zones. In Homesick, a diasporic Singaporean family, quarantined during the SARS crisis, evaluate the meanings of home. And in sex.violence.blood. gore, the facade of a rigid, orderly society is peeled away to reveal chaotic passions.

About the Author

Born in 1977, Alfian Bin Sa’at was a fourth year medical student at the National University of Singapore when he published A History of Amnesia. His first book of verse, One Fierce Hour, was well-received in Singapore and Malaysia. His collection of short stories, Corridor, won the Singapore Literature Prize Commendation Award in 1998; this was published in 1999.

Alfian Sa’at is also the Resident Playwright of W!LD RICE. His plays have been translated into German, Swedish and Danish, and they have been read and performed in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, London, Berlin, Hamburg, Zurich, Munich, Copenhagen and Stockholm. He has been nominated for the Life! Theatre Awards for Best Original Script seven times, and has received the award twice.

Alfian was the winner of the SPH-NAC Golden Point Award for Poetry and the Singapore Young Artist Award for Literature in 2001. His other publications include the second play Collected Plays Two, poetry collection A History of Amnesia, political satire play Cooling-Off Day and a short story collection, Malay Sketches.

Praise

“The lyrical text weaves its way seductively into the mind, indulging it with its almost romantic metaphors. It may be the young playwright’s best work.”
— The Straits Times on The Optic Trilogy (Best Original Script nominee*, 2002)

“A continuation of the legacy of good literature all over the world...letting the human story carry the issues, not the other way round... profoundly uplifting.”
— Singapore Theatre Reviews on Fugitives (Best Original Script nominee*, 2003)

“Rises to the occasion admirably…endearing and engaging in its earnest intelligence and soaring ambitions.”
—The Straits Times on Homesick (Best Original Script nominee*, 2007)

“One of those rare, exhilarating productions that revives our faith in the interrogative potential of theatre...the satire is uncompromisingly vitriolic, the commentary incisive and topical.”
—The Arts Magazine on sex.violence.blood.gore

*The Straits Times, Life Theatre Awards

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ISBN: 978-981-08-6065-3
Published: 2010
Dimension: 130mm x 200mm
Extent: 332
Finish: Paperback