Happy to end it
SINGAPORE - Playwright Alfian Sa'at is banking on a happy ending, at least onstage.
His play, Happy Endings, Asian Boys Vol 3, which is produced by W!ild Rice and directed by Ivan Heng, opens yesterday - a month after news came out that his application as a relief teacher was rejected by the Ministry of Education (MOE).
The 29-year-old former National Arts Council Young Artist Awardee seemed relaxed and calm when Today spoke to him on the phone yesterday morning.
"I don't feel bitter or outraged at this point," Sa'at said of the incident, which he described with a laugh as "publicity in the worst possible way".
On June 7, Sa'at posted on his personal blog his letter to the MOE enquiring about the rejection of the application in April, along with the ministry's reply. Newspapers, including Today, picked up on the story a couple of days later, which led to a "sudden explosion in readership", and accusations of him being a "media whore of Babylon".
Sa'at has since made his blog accessible only to friends.
Still, the writer in Sa'at would not want to trade in this "tragic ending", although he would have wanted a more "amicable" ending with MOE. But for now at least, his attention is focused on the final instalment of his acclaimed gay play trilogy, which began with Asian Boys Vol 1 in 2000, followed by Landmarks: Asian Boys Vol 2 in 2004.
Sa'at said that Happy Endings marks a turning point in his writing career. He turns 30 during the play's run on July 18.
"This is the end of the trilogy, and it has a kind of swansong element to it," he said.
Indeed, some might read some faint echoes of Sa'at life into Happy Endings, the first part of which was partially adapted from Peculiar Chris - Singapore's first gay novel about a young man named Christopher and his friends' experiences.
Published in 1992, the book was written by Johann Lee, now a London-based accountant, who graces the play's gala opening on Friday. The second part attempts to take stock of what happened to the protagonist 15 years on.
"I don't have that much liberty to stray too much from the book, but there is a certain listlessness and wanderlust in Christopher," Sa'at explained. "He leaves for London and decides not to go back to Singapore - something I've considered many times."
Happy Endings will also be the last gay play Sa'at will write. "(I've said) all that I wanted on the subject in a theatre setting. Although I'm not saying I won't talk about it in other forms, like short stories."
But for the stage at least, the playwright is looking toward small-scale, conceptual performances for more intimate black box settings. These will deal with the "usual things", such as politics, propaganda, and the line between fiction and reality. - TODAY/fa
Since February 4, 2006