Having just moved to New York for two weeks, Adriana Nordin Manan witnessed a devastating event that left a long-lasting impact on the United States and its people - the Sept 11 attacks.
She had left Malaysia for studies and, after the attacks, she observed divisions and arguments among the community and families at her newfound home.
“I was in an international school where it got very heated. We had students from everywhere. I had these big questions, really, about polarisation… and how families can be split apart based on opinions on politics,” she said.
Going on to study political science and anthropology in university, Adriana (above, right) was naturally curious about people’s behaviour.
That innate curiosity, plus the fact that she always wanted to write a play, led to “Fault Lines”.
“Fault Lines” is the 40-year-old playwright’s debut that revolves around a Malaysian family that was separated for years and reunited in New York, only to face conflict due to different personal views.
Directed by Ghafir Akbar (above, left), the play is helmed by a seven-person cast headlined by Fatimah Abu Bakar and Putrina Rafie, who will play the mother-daughter duo of Habsah Aziz and Shereen Rahman.
After years of separation, the two women reunite when Habsah and other family members travel from Kuala Lumpur to New York City - Shereen’s adopted home.
Adriana said none of the characters, especially Shereen, is based on her. She said she just wanted to chronicle voices that were familiar, as well as unfamiliar, to her.
It was about how difficult conversations and different views can come together.
“I interviewed Malay women who are now living in the US after marrying Americans. I didn’t even have to mine my own experiences. I could summon voices that were familiar after all these years of walking the earth,” she explained.
However, she did draw from her experiences of having been through 9/11 and what it felt like being an immigrant in the US, always knowing that it was not quite home for her.
Malay minorities, political division
Adriana shared about going to a theatre workshop coordinated by local performing arts icon, Jo Kukathas who said politics is something that can be hard for people to resonate with and theatre might not be the platform for it.
That got her thinking.
“I knew I wanted to be a playwright, but what is a context that would be interesting and would feel that it spoke to me?
“So I decided to write something about a family. It’s a Malay family. The members of the family that have settled in the US, they’re Malay minorities in the US. I thought that was interesting to explore.”
Having spent many years in New York - she was there when Barack Obama was elected president - Adriana spent a lot of time thinking about coexistence.
Spending time with the people there, the Middle East and Israel were especially enduring topics.
In New York particularly, with its sizeable Jewish community, she noted divisions among family members, ignited by arguments about colonialism, Zionism and wanting to return to Israel.
She does admit that divisions based on politics in Malaysia are mild compared to what she witnessed in the US.
After 9/11, she recalled that the US government’s response stood out to her.
“It was like, this is not the US government that I remember growing up hearing, you know? Freedom and everything like that,” she said.
Putting pen to paper
In 2013, Adriana returned to Malaysia and worked a corporate job. However, any ideas she might have had that she could start writing after work flew out the window because she could not concentrate.
“I always wanted to write a play but it’s not easy. It hasn't been a smooth journey for me,” said the self-proclaimed “theatre brat”.
“I loved theatre. It was at my home, even though I couldn’t study it formally or anything,” she said, adding that her family has enjoyed watching theatre performances together.
It was only after she left the corporate sector in 2017 and started freelancing that she managed to put pen to paper.
In 2020, she had about 70 percent of her script ready and in 2021, thanks to the movement restrictions, she made headway on her first script.
Fortunately, Adriana and Ghafir became friends after meeting at a theatre workshop. Ghafir himself lived in New York for some time and did theatre in the US. So Adriana knew the subject matter would resonate with him.
She also enjoyed his work directing “Language Archive”, written by American playwright Julia Cho, and she knew he would be perfect to direct “Fault Lines”.
“I recognised these people, these characters, these stories, these struggles,” Ghafir said.
“After the first table reading of the script in 2019, we had a group discussion, talking about characters and content, dramaturgical aspects of the play. I remember that I couldn’t stop talking,“ he said.
In 2021, an earlier version of the “Fault Lines” script was a semi-finalist - from a pool of over 1,000 submissions from around the world - in the International Scratchpad Series organised by The Playwrights Realm, an off-Broadway company dedicated to new play development.
Since then, the script has been workshopped and a new version is set to be staged.
A new person facing an old past
Adriana’s work eventually boiled down to characters facing polarisation despite differences between them, each wanting to make a stand and wanting to be accepted.
“At the core of it, everybody’s trying to find a place, trying to find a corner,” Ghafir said.
“I think when people move, people change. And when they reunite, everybody’s finding that time to adjust and trying to figure out, like, who are you now and how do we fit in together?
“So, I think, especially for mothers and daughters, brothers and sisters who had to be apart for so long, when they come back, having gone through deaths and marriages and unions and separations, everything has changed. So, what do you mean to me now, and what is our relationship today?” he explained.
“That’s the complexity of a character like Shereen because she goes there with a certain identity and then she develops sort of like this Shereen 2.0.
“What is it that you have to give up about yourself to adapt to a new country, to a new place?
“Did she have to adapt or is it just a progression of the character? And then what happens when the mother comes to see her after a few years?” Ghafir asked, adding that it also brings up the question of how much of herself is Shereen hiding from her mother.
Casting Fatimah - mother of actress Sharifah Amani - as the matriarch of the family was also something they were looking forward to, with the veteran actress bringing her own unique take on the character.
“We are in the same circle of friends, so we made some calls and she was happy to help and join us on the reading,” Ghafir recalled, saying the actress had a big hand in shaping the character to what audiences will see onstage.
Apart from headliners Fatimah and Putrina, “Fault Lines” also features Xavier Reminick, Reza Zainal Abidin, Sabrina Hassan, Aloeng Silalahi and Catherine Leyow.
The play was produced by Protagonist Studio, with story development by Cocoon Creative Lab.
“Fault Lines” will be staged from Nov 16-19 at the Petaling Jaya Performing Arts Centre (PJPAC). There will be talkback sessions after the matinee shows on the 18th and 19th. - Mkini
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