As fate would have it, the production of Malam Takdir staged across Penang and the Klang Valley earlier this year marked Chee Sek Thim's final project as a member of Five Arts Centre. As the collective turns 40 in 2024, we would like to acknowledge Sek Thim's immense contributions to the directions and questions pursued by Five Arts in the past two decades.
Exposed to art, music, and theatre from an early age in Penang, Sek Thim began performing in productions by
Five Arts members upon returning from the University of Notre Dame, USA, where he graduated with an MFA in
Ceramics. From the mid-1990s, he worked extensively with dancer-choreographer Marion D'Cruz, playwright
Leow Puay Tin and theatre director Krishen Jit in projects such as Let Me Speak! (1994), Urn Piece
(1995), The Coffin is Too Big for the Hole (1995), Immigrant (1997), and Family
(1998-99).
Sek Thim's projects have spanned a range of genres - from solo to ensemble work, monologues to musicals - showcasing his eclectic storytelling abilities and curiosities. Several thematic threads can be discerned in his directorial trajectory: from reinterpreting the Malaysian-Singaporean canon (Ang Tau Mui; Kuo Pao Kun's Coffin, Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral, and Lao Jiu: The Ninth Born; Huzir Sulaiman's Atomic Jaya; K.S. Maniam's The Sandpit: Womensis; ENCORE - an evening of songs from the Malaysian Musical Theatre) to excavating local Penang stories and histories (Pearls for the Picking, Never Trust A City With No Ghosts, the Hokkien play Tai Ji Tua Teow 代誌大條), to experimentations with contemporary opera in collaboration with composer Johan Othman (The Conference of the Birds, Malam Takdir). Amongst other undertakings, Sek Thim also adapted Beth Yahp's short story 'In 1969' into the powerful musical theatre work That Was The Year, self-directed himself in Leow Puay Tin's Cakap Dapur: R & D Stories, devised Reconstructing Medea, and staged June Tan's Cheras, The Musical! Across these diverse projects, a consistent throughline can be found: Sek Thim's elegant, rigorous poetics, which brings together the sensibility of a minimalist with a penchant for the epic and the epochal.
Upon relocating back to Penang in 2008, Sek Thim took on the task of enabling and supporting the work of
emerging artists in Penang - leading the Initiate. Develop.
Perform programme through his Reka Art Space and Sinkeh platforms. Over the past 15 years, he
played a crucial role in facilitating exchanges between performing artists and touring performances between Penang and KL. It is within this
larger context that Sek Thim has chosen to withdraw from Five Arts and fully focus his energies in Penang. We
will miss producing his creative projects, as well as his invaluable insights and criticality at meetings.
Once, when asked to describe Five Arts, Sek Thim made the point that at its core the collective could just be a group of close friends and fellow travelers talking and exchanging deeply at a shared table. Sek Thim - we look forward to continue sharing the table with you, to keeping a seat for you at performances, and to working together again. Thank you, for everything.
Anne James, Faiq Syazwan Kuhiri, Ivy N. Josiah, Janet Pillai, June Tan, Kubhaer T. Jethwani, Lee Ren Xin, Mac Chan, Marion D’Cruz, Mark Teh, Ravi Navaratnam, Suhaila Merican, and Syamsul Azhar.
Once, when asked to describe Five Arts, Sek Thim made the point that at its core the collective could just be a group of close friends and fellow travelers talking and exchanging deeply at a shared table. Sek Thim - we look forward to continue sharing the table with you, to keeping a seat for you at performances, and to working together again. Thank you, for everything.
Anne James, Faiq Syazwan Kuhiri, Ivy N. Josiah, Janet Pillai, June Tan, Kubhaer T. Jethwani, Lee Ren Xin, Mac Chan, Marion D’Cruz, Mark Teh, Ravi Navaratnam, Suhaila Merican, and Syamsul Azhar.
