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THE village bomoh, shaking his long dreadlocks, takes the stand in court. Whispers sweep through the crowded courtroom.
He testifies against the sultan's young and beautiful concubine, who is accused of a murder conspiracy and religious deviance. She denies all charges.
This highly charged trial begins socio-political play The Swordfish, Then The Concubine, which opens the OCBC Singapore Theatre Festival this week.
In it, Malaysian playwright Kee Thuan Chye, 54, asks: Who is telling the truth and who is a liar?
He says: 'This scene explores the gap between the law and justice. Although this scene is set 400 years ago, such dynamics still occur in courtrooms all over the world today.'
The associate editor of The Star newspaper in Malaysia dramatises two fables from the Sejarah Melayu (The Malay Annals), a Malay literary work that chronicles the history of the Malay sultanate in the 1400s and early 1500s.
Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times' Life!
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