Play to go on despite director's arrest

SINGAPORE - Rahmat M. Nor's mystery play, Floods Of Alibis, has been on a difficult journey to the stage.

Not least of which has been the recent arrest of the play's director, well-known arts and entertainment figure Rafaat Hamzah, for drug-related offences three weeks ago.

Rahmat, 47, a Singaporean writer and educator, has not been able to get in touch with Rafaat and believes he is still in custody. The show's producer, American dancer-producer Richelle South, has since stepped into the role of director.

"Putting the show together has also been a psychological challenge for us," Rahmat says.

But he is relieved and confident that the show will open as planned on June 25 at the DBS Arts Centre.

Incidentally, the play itself is a psychological thriller, about a psychology professor who finds one of her brightest students dead in her office. She must work against time to unravel the case.

Set in the 1970s on an unspecified university campus, it stars Italian theatre practitioner Alessandra Fel as Professor Samantha Fay and award-winning Singapore actor Najib Soiman as her protege, Ronald.

The cast has been rehearsing since March and Rafaat had laid the directorial groundwork for the production prior to his arrest. He is a three-time winner of the Best Lead Actor Award at the Malay entertainment awards ceremony Pesta Perdana.

Rahmat adds that Rafaat had been "completely professional" and worked well with the actors.

The show had endured another bump earlier in the year, when a cast member's medical condition delayed the show's opening for a month, from May to June. Things are now back on track and they have a full slate of final rehearsals this week.

"Some people were uneasy because of all the hype around the show, that we were getting publicity not for the show but for different reasons - but we're lucky and we will try to pull this thing through," he says.

Rahmat first wrote the whodunit as a short story several years ago. He submitted it for a short story competition, but it did not do well.

Because he loved the story and enjoyed the genre of theatre, he decided to turn the work into a play.

He submitted it for the Theatre Talkback dialogue session hosted by the Goodman Arts Centre at the end of 2012.

To his surprise, the work received positive feedback from the public and from practitioners such as seasoned playwright Jean Tay, author of Boom (2008) and Everything But The Brain (2005), and artistic director of Cake Theatrical Productions Natalie Hennedige.

Rafaat, it seems, saw "great promise" in the play and decided to take it on when Rahmat approached him to do it. It will be the debut production of Rahmat's new theatre company, Theatre Matahari. Lead actor Najib, 36, emphasises that Rafaat is "a very good director", and that many people in the industry were shocked by the arrest.

He says of Rafaat, who is also a writer and poet: "I've been working with him for a very long time, but I've never had the chance to work with him as a director. Usually he writes and I direct. So I thought this was a good chance to work with him."

Najib adds: "He had already spoken to me about his vision for the piece, and they are still following what he wants. I think it should be okay."

This article was first published on June 17, 2014.
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