Playwright's Message
Alfian Sa'at

I believed at one point of time that my disempowerment: political, social, moral, was some kind of power. That is why when Jeff asked me to do this play, I readily agreed. I wanted not so much to be deliberately controversial, but to give a voice to the marginalised, and to be unapologetic about it. Their songs would not be of reconciliation; petitions and pleas for inclusion into the mainstream, but brassy assertions of individuality.

'But isn't everyone marginalised at some point of time or the other, even the most privileged?'

A good question. In writing for this play, I also wanted to critique the politics of marginality. How long do we want to exploit our minority status, be it ethnic, religious, sexual, whatever? How far can we play victim? And if our oppressors one day decide to step aside for us without an argument, then where will the struggle be? Will we lose ourselves in the vacuum of their absence, losing all that we stood for, or more correctly, stood against?