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Branavan Aruljothi plays Mahesh in the hard-hitting production Parah.

Now a much leaner production, Parah, cuts deeper across the themes of identity, belonging and the power of words.

WORDS are powerful, prickly things. With this in mind, Singaporean playwright Alfian Sa’at attempts to navigate the shifting lines of Malaysia’s racial boundaries in his upcoming play Parah.

Parah, which will be restaged at the Damansara Performing Arts Centre in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, starting this Thursday, revolves around four teenage friends: Melur, Hafiz, Mahesh and Kahoe. It starts as a whodunnit when Melur finds a page torn out of the novel Interlok, which belongs to her schoolteacher mother. As the group dig into the book to find out why someone would do such a thing, they stumble onto questions much bigger than a simple case of mischief.

Abdullah Hussain’s book Interlok is probably best known for the controversy it raised in 2011 over “offensive” words and depictions of the Indian community in the novel which was made obligatory reading for the Form Five Malay literature syllabus.

Parah director Jo Kukathas firmly believes that the play is timeless, using Interlok to discuss an issue that goes deeper than words. “In the play, Kahoe says ‘every year there’s something’, it’s not about Interlok, but how we so easily turn on each other over divisive issues,” relates Kukathas.

“The issue is very raw and using 17-year-olds to air it only emphasises the rawness,” adds Kukathas, revealing that she and Alfian had considered casting actual 17-year-olds to play the characters who are written as being in Form Five.

“But it was too hard on such young people. Mind you, the cast had it hard too, sometimes there are dark places you don’t want to explore,” she shares. She mentions Alfian’s conflict when writing Parah, balancing the want to explore an issue with the hurt bringing up ‘offensive’ words could cause. She reasons that censorship isn’t the solution, and only in dealing with the matter in its complete state can one hope to move past it.

“I think the cast has settled into its respective roles well, which is what happens when you get the opportunity to perform for more than one run!” says Alfian, with much pride in his actors Farah Rani (Melur), Iedil Putra (Hafiz), Branavan Aruljothi (Mahesh) and Gregory Sze (Kahoe).

The cast’s acting chops have been further cemented, with Farah bagging Best Supporting Actor in the recent 10th BOH Cameronian Art Awards for her role in another Alfian play, Nadirah. Alfian too was honoured at the Cammies, being awarded Best Original Script for Parah.

Now in its fifth run, the play has gone through several revisions at the hands of Alfian and Kukathas. The two had pared down the production during its Australian debut at the World Theatre Festival (WTF) in Brisbane in February. Kukathas insists that the core of the play had not been changed, merely made leaner and more to the point.

Actress Farah says she is raring to show the ‘new’ Parah back home after performing it abroad. “Having to tell a story to an audience that’s unfamiliar with the topic or the language made us try harder than ever to convey what Parah was about. Now, I want to show Malaysia to see how far we’ve come,” she enthuses.

Parah will be performed at the Damansara Performing Arts Centre, Empire Damansara, Jalan PJU 8/8, Damansara Perdana, Petaling Jaya, Selangor from May 16 to 19 (RM48) and May 21-26 (RM58), RM38 for students for all shows. Visit kakiseni.com or call 03-7954 4868 to purchase tickets.