Boria: A Form of Malay Theatre (Review)

Random Reviews -5

Boria: A Form of Malay Theatre

By

Rahmah Bujang

(ISEAS, 1987)

For most readers this will probably be a book of surprises.  The first surprise may well be to discover what Boria’s all about. It’s basically entertainment, drama and dance, with a message. Its home amongst Penang’s Malay community. Although it has now been transformed into an art form with a separate identity, the original concept of Boria was adapted from entertainment that members of the British East India Company’s Madras Regiment brought to Penang more than a hundred years ago. This is somewhat ironic as many of the Boria plots described in the book deal with combating non-Malay influences on the community.

Although the book was published in 1987, the actual research for the book was carried out some ten years earlier as part of the author’s doctoral thesis. It is an interesting time as the country is gearing itself up for its first elections since the race riots of 1969. So the Boria plots have a strong emphasis on conflict, usually domestic, which always has a happy ending. This is usually brought about by the appearance of the penghulu (village headman) in the final stages of the drama. Although he represents order, interestingly he also plays the role of the compromise maker.  Given the proclaimed moral certainty that often characterises political leadership, it’s also a pleasant surprise that the message of most of the comedy and songs is that we need to live and let live while retaining our moral integrity. That integrity for the Boria community is naturally based on Islam.

One of the many interesting aspects of Boria that the author draws out is how Boria tries to cope with being hijacked from being a popular participatory art form to being part of a new ‘Malaysian culture’ to be performed in theatres, on radio and TV far away from the kampong where it has its roots. This mirrors the confusion of the times where in the interests of unity and stability, top down was asserting itself over bottom up. There’s a beautifully captured scene of the preparations for a Boria performance organised by a political group where the politicos decide what needs to be done while the performers hardly have a word to say for themselves. Bujang’s subtle portrayal of the meeting demonstrates how an essentially participatory art form grounded in interaction between the performers and their audience is being eroded.

Sometimes the author can be too subtle. Native English speakers may be put off initially by what appears to be her laboured writing in English. However after the first chapter I found I just needed to slow down to capture the very gentle style of writing. As with the Boria performance itself the text contains many nuanced messages about the role of culture in a multicultural society and class, race and gender relations that can easily be missed on a skim read. A book I’ll certainly want to read again.

The book is available at The Penang Bookshelf at RM150. SOLD