by Alfian Sa'at
Synopsis
Alfian Sa’at’s The Asian Boys Trilogy is a fascinating, insightful tour through the lives and loves of the gay community in Singapore. In the campy and carnivalesque Dreamplay, history is turned upside-down as a goddess travels through time to ‘save gay men from themselves’. In Landmarks, geography takes centrestage, as eight short plays explore the spaces that have been claimed, colonised, and trespassed by those at the margins of the mainstream. In Happy Endings, the playwright’s adaptation of the novel Peculiar Chris evolves into a meditation on the relationship between life and literature. With clear-eyed compassion and eloquent outrage, this collection of plays charts the coming-of-age of a community finding its voice.
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 first play Collected Plays One, poetry collection A History of Amnesia, political satire play Cooling-Off Day and a short story collection, Malay Sketches.
Reviews
“A clever and witty script… engaged in furious dialogue over various issues... embraced what is seen as alien, clinical or criminal in Singapore and loved it into poignant life.”
—The Flying Inkpot on Dreamplay: Asian Boys Vol. 1 (Best Original Script nominee*, 2001)
“For the matured and knowing audience, Dreamplay is captivatingly humorous in its explicit vulgarity, witty wordplay, blatant allusions and playful meta-theatricality.”
—Poached Mag on Dreamplay: Asian Boys Vol. 1 (Best Original Script nominee*, 2001)
“Writer Alfian Sa’at is the voice that will not let you forget…combines the density of language found in his poetry with his knack for arresting set-pieces and plot twists displayed in his short stories…Landmarks hits perfect pitch.”
— The Straits Times on Landmarks: Asian Boys Vol. 2 (Best Original Script winner*, 2005)
“Memorable witty punchlines and insider jokes abound in Happy Endings…but there is a sense of heartfelt urgency in Alfian’s words—the real star of the play…This play is, as it should be, for everyone.”
—TODAY on Happy Endings: Asian Boys Vol. 3
*The Straits Times, Life Theatre Awards
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ISBN: 978-981-08-7041-6 (paperback) | 978-981-14-1668-2 (e-book)
Published: 2010
Dimension: 130mm x 200mm
Extent: 292
Finish: Paperback