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A young Zahim (r) plays the Angel of Death |
Malaysia’s top-ranking actor-director
shifts into high gear
By Antares
Appropriately
enough I first met Zahim Albakri on stage - in a 1988 production of Maureen
Ten’s For The Time Being. I played a
dying doctor and Zahim was cast as an angel assigned to assist in the doctor’s
transition. Zahim had recently returned from drama studies in the U.K. and this
was his introduction to Malaysian theater. With the benefit of hindsight it
appears that Zahim’s rôle as an angel of transition was indeed a prophetic one.
In the decades since his return to the homeland, Zahim Albakri has been a key factor in
helping shift local theater from the amateur end of the spectrum to the
professional. He didn’t accomplish this feat alone, of course. Look at his peer
group - Jit Murad, Jo Kukathas, Huzir Sulaiman, Allan Perera, Indi Nadarajah,
Afdlin Shauki, Harith Iskandar, Patrick Teoh, Nell Ng, Gavin Yap – all theater
luminaries in their own right. They are undoubtedly the fresh wave of talent
that has swept up the theater-loving legacy of the older aficionados and
carried it to entirely new heights.
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Co-founder of Instant Cafe Theatre |
In 1989 Zahim
got together with a few buddies and founded the notorious Instant Café Theatre,
which carved a prominent niche for itself in political satire. He subsequently
created Dramalab as a vehicle to explore and develop original works, and to
promote the further growth of a Malaysian theater idiom.
Stage actors
began receiving modest wages only around 1990, so almost everyone aspiring to a
full-time career in local theater had to moonlight in TV dramas and the
occasional feature film. Zahim Albakri has appeared in countless Malay TV
dramas, many of which are best forgotten, but he did score a Best Actor award
in 1999 for his performance in something called Odisi. The Boh Cameronian Arts Awards - inaugurated in 2002 and now
affectionately known as the Cammies - was a timely boost to the performing arts
in Malaysia in that excellent work was at last getting the public recognition
it deserved.
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Making waves in theater |
Zahim bagged
the Cammy for Best Director (Spilt Gravy on Rice) the very first year. In 2004 he was voted Best Solo Performer for The Smell of Language, and a year later he
shared the Best Director Cammy with Singapore’s Alvin Tan for Separation 40 (a Dramalab/Necessary
Stage co-production). His huge directorial success with Puteri Gunung Ledang – The Musical has
established Zahim Albakri as a veritable icon in Malaysian theater. When I met
him over lunch towards the end of August 2006, Zahim was in the midst of reprising
his rôle as director of Jit Murad’s maiden play, Gold Rain and Hailstones, first staged in August 1998 to tremendous
acclaim, and which begins an 11-day run on September 7th, this time on the big
stage at the newly inaugurated KL Performing Arts Center.
Zahim’s
mother Valerie is a vivacious Englishwoman with a distinct flair for the arts.
Her ambition was to be a professional dancer, but her parents persuaded her to
get a bank job instead. Valerie became a speech and drama teacher in Malaysia
when she married Zahim’s dad - an eminent architect best known for the National
Library and the landmark Putra World Trade Center. In February 2006, Zahim’s
father had a heart attack while playing golf, and died. Zahim has two siblings:
elder brother Zarul (a musician and film producer) and younger sister Zehan
(who followed her father’s footsteps and took up architecture).
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Zahim Albakri: conferred Datukships in 2009 & 2015 |
The warmth
and affection with which Zahim speaks of his parents is tangible. He did toy
for a while with the idea of becoming an architect like his dad, but instead
opted to express his artistic impulses in the more kinetic field of theater
where he subsequently earned his Master’s degree in Theater Directing.
He
rarely intellectualizes about directing, preferring to approach his work
intuitively, allowing for serendipity and creative inputs from his cast and
crew. Zahim’s lifelong interest in architectural forms and physical structures
grounds him firmly in the visual aspects of dramaturgy, while his early
exposure to the magic of theater gives him a solid grasp of the alchemy that
happens when the right actors get together to dramatize a story.
At the ripe
young age of 54, Zahim Albakri is a mature actor and director in the fullness
of his prime, poised on the brink of ever greater accomplishments.
[First published in The Hilt, September
2006]