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Leci and Zahim Albakri. Known for
its political satires initially, Instant
Cafe quickly evolved to include many
forms of theatre including classical,
contemporary and experimental,
among its productions. It has also
spawned programmes to nurture local
playwrights.
While her co-founders have moved
on, Jo continues to remain at the helm
of Instant Cafe Theatre as its artistic
director. Today, Instant Cafe also
includes the Cafe House of Art and
Ideas (CHAI), which is described on
its website as a “space for the public
to engage with Malaysian artists and
thinkers.” CHAI - which can also serve
as a venue for exhibitions, workshop
performances, readings, lecture-
demonstrations, talks and forums - is a
place where appreciation for the arts is
cultivated.
On a personal level, Jo hopes to
continue expanding her repertoire on
stage. She would like to do more Greek
tragedy, be involved in an epic local
production, and to carry on telling
Malaysian stories in big and small
ways.
Tete-A-Tete with a
Theatre Titan
ON EARLY INFLUENCES IN THEATRE:
I was interested in theatre since I was
little. Post merdeka my father K Das
and his friend the playwright laureate
Syed Alwi had taken over the Malaysian
Arts Theatre Group (MATG) in a
democratic coup d’état from the British
theatre stalwarts who had previously
been staging mostly “Shakespeare and
Shaw,” as my Dad put it. Now, Dad
loved both Shakespeare and Shaw and
was always quoting from one or the
other but he and Syed felt it was time to
do their own Malaysian plays. So they
staged their coup d’état and then Dad
went off to write the first local play for
MATG. It was called All the Perfumes,
which comes of course from Macbeth.
I don’t think the irony was
unintentional on Dad’s side – he
was mischievous that way. It wasn’t
in his nature to be a humourless
revolutionary; he was a revolutionary
but I think humour was his weapon
of choice. Perhaps it was our family’s
weapon of choice. Our invented family
crest bore in pig Latin the legend:
Smileus et Kutakados Ernicus, which
in Dad’s translation was “smile like the
Kukathases always.” He was also fond
of quoting Roosevelt: “talk softly but
carry a big stick.” But that’s another
kind of humour. Humour was very
important in our family. We took it
seriously.
ON INSTANT CAFE THEATRE:
I formed Instant Café with three of
my best friends because we wanted
to focus less on Shakespeare – even
though we all loved Shakespeare and
had in fact become close friends while
rehearsing Romeo and Juliet – and
spent more time cultivating our own
Malaysian theatre. So it was a case of
history repeating! Dad was tickled. He
was probably even more tickled two
years later when the first full length
play I directed was Shakespeare’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream.
However my production was
inspired by Malaysian culture and
history: