Cheras Boy & The American Dream: Is the grass really greener on the other side?

It is not every day that you get Patrick Teoh, Faridah Merican and the rising stars of Malaysian theatre all on the same stage.

Catch them in Philadelphia, Here I Come! at KLPac from 9 to 17 July 2022.

Premiered in Dublin more than 50 years ago, it was the very play that launched Irish dramatist Brian Friel onto the international stage and went on to run on Broadway for 326 performances, racking up several Tony Award nominations.

Here, a Malaysianised adaptation by Joe Hasham OAM has been staged thrice to critical success – in 1994, 1998 and 2013 – each time to full houses.

Originally set in the fictional town of Ballybeg, Hasham’s version is set in good old Cheras, the land of endless ‘tamans’ (residential estates) and unending traffic jams.

It is also where the Tan family, comprising father SB Tan and son Danny Tan, runs a small ‘pasar’ mini in the play.

In Danny’s words, “There’s nothing about KL I don’t know already…, especially Cheras… every food stall, and every traffic jam, and every toll plaza and every flooded drain…”

Unlike the previous staging set in the New Millennium, this upcoming staging turns the clock back in time to 1997 – the year of Hong Kong’s handover, Princess Diana’s untimely death and the premiere of Titanic. It is also the year Danny decides enough is enough and prepares to leave the stifling shophouse he calls home and the land of nasi lemak for Philadelphia.

But is the grass really greener on the other side?

“We all dream of a better life. my father left Lebanon for Australia, working multiple jobs until he could bring us all over,” said Hasham, who played Danny Public in a 1969 production in Perth.

“But the play is much more than that – it is also about love, though it may be unspoken. You see it in the uncommunicative and tight-lipped father played by Patrick Teoh, the pillar of the household Mak Cik Esah and in Danny. You will laugh but you will also cry as it’ll tug at your heartstrings. As one reviewer aptly sums up, it will bring you on a roller-coaster ride,” he added.

The genius of Friel is in creating two personas for the main character – Danny Public (the one we see), played by Jun Teoh, and Danny Private (the alter ego representing his innermost thoughts), played by Nabil Zakaria. Teoh and Zakaria are joined by three original cast members – Faridah Merican, Patrick Teoh and Andre D’Cruz – along with new cast members – Amanda Ang, Freddy Tan, Samuel Low, Tan Meng Kheng, Chloe Lee, Chen Wen Xuen, Daniel Hussin, Nandagopall Mohan Sundarram, Nicholas Lai, and Tin Raman.

The shophouse setting is brought to life by set designer Yusman Mokhtar, and set builder Paul Hasham, lit by lighting designer Amelia Tan with sound design by Chris Higgs and Dramaturg Omar Ali.

Philadelphia, Here I Come! was the first play The Actors Studio adapted to a Malaysian context, a risky move which has paid off handsomely. It was staged right on the heels of A Streetcar Named Desire then and the very same sequence is repeated almost 30 years later. This upcoming staging is supported by MyCreative Ventures and licensed by arrangement with The Agency (London) Ltd, 24 Pottery Lane, London, W114LZ; [email protected]

Tickets priced at RM68 flat can be purchased via https://bit.ly/phlc_tickets.