Ko-Tai In The City

By Katharine Chua

Ombak Ombak ARTStudio continues to make waves with its recent portrayal of Penang’s history from Merdeka to the present day. The musical was a nostalgic take on Penang’s good times and bad times, with reverant nods to inspiring performers and cultural icons.

KO-TAI PENANG was the final act in a trilogy of community street performances directed and produced by Ombak Ombak artStudio which showcased historical events from Penang and the nation’s history from Merdeka to the present day. Ombak put on three free street performances throughout Penang; the outdoor locations created a wonderful atmosphere and lent authenticity to the stage shows.

A colourful ko-tai (Penang Hokkien for stage show) with actors and musicians replete in the gaudy colours of the 60s and 70s warmly welcomed the audience into their multi ethnic community. Popular songs and dances took centre stage and the early days of Merdeka were nostalgically portrayed as a time when personal liberties and community camaraderie prevailed.

Soon the mood changed with the onset of the nation’s biggest protest – the hartal (strike) of 1967. In the aftermath, factions developed and fault lines started to segregate the people. Opposition parties established a strong presence in Penang, and Penangites began to vote for change.

Two decades of Penang’s industrialisation were captured in an exciting 10–minute episode where Komtar sprung up, the Free Trade Zone was developed, factory workers recruited (these soon suffered from burn-out!) and consumerism took root.

Weaved through these stories of Penang’s political and economic history were creamy helpings of popular songs from the 70s and 80s led by the two lead songbirds, decked out in their short minis and white sequinned pants. Ko-Tai Penang featured well loved characters from the charitable and controversial Rose Chan to the guitar playing fortuneteller, Tan Tong Tong, both local legends in their own right.

The performance also took on the indiscriminate development of Penang through a popular Mandarin favourite that had this line, “Where have all the blue skies gone?” This pre-empted the closing of the show and a sadness for the lost days of ronggeng and ko-tai – days when Penang’s performing arts spilled onto every street corner. Ko-Tai Penang captured all the past heroes and heroines of the local arts scene as the rolling slide show played tribute to the pioneers of Penang’s social and artistic fabrics.

All’s well that ends well, as the curtain finally came down on a rowdy stage enlivened by memorable joget, cha cha and conga numbers with performers pulling members of the audience from their seats. The spirit of ko-tai lives on!

Ko-Tai – behind the scenes
The Ombak combination of director Ho Sheau Fung, composer Dr Tan Sooi Beng and choreographer Aida Redza produced the final part of the trilogy of Penang’s history, which began two years ago with Kisah Pulau Pinang, followed by Ronggeng Malaysia in 2008.

According to Ho, inspiration for Ko-Tai came from an earlier street performance in 2008 called Opera Pasar.

“We were working with a group of young musicians and dancers on a site-specific performance that told the story of a local market which was ‘dying’. When we were rehearsing, we were shocked to see tenants who had lived along Carnarvon Street for so many years, packing up and leaving the inner city. A new owner had bought over their shophouses to turn into a hotel. These tenants were old traders whose families had lived in George Town for generations and had served the community for over a century. It was heartbreaking to see. Around the same time, George Town was listed as a World Heritage Site. I think that inspired us to do a piece that focused on lost culture.”

After months of researching and collecting community stories from George Town’s older generation, Ko-Tai finally came alive on stage where it truly belonged. Looking around at the various audiences it was heartwarming to see their responses to the real life stories of Penang’s formidable past – of a people who were not fearful of change or transformation for the better; a multi-ethnic community bound by rich histories and a shared love for music and dance. Under the bright theatre lights, I saw a community brought closer together by a collective memory of past glories and achievements.

“We have tried to accurately portray mid-20th century Penang, which had so many cultural assets. The local arts scene was very ‘happening’ and diverse. Since then we’ve suffered a lot of damage to our cultural heritage,” explained Ho.

Does she feel that Ko-tai portrays development and Penang’s rapid industrialisation in a critical light?

“We are definitely not against development,” she stressed. “It’s the over development and the influences of consumerism that have caused social breakdown; unfortunately this is unavoidable. Personally, what I hoped to achieve was to pose questions to the audience to get them to think about the values that they appreciated the most.”

Tackling difficult periods of Penang’s history was also something that the Ombak team didn’t shy away from, giving considerable stage time to the Rent-Repeal Act and the hartal of 1967.

“These were very important events in Penang’s history, which many old people can’t and won’t be able to forget,” said Ho.

“The sad thing is that the younger generation is completely unaware of these events. The young need to be curious about the past and learn from history.

“When we produce a show for the community, Ombak wants to portray as balanced a (view of) history as we can. We do struggle over what to portray and what not to, especially with issues that are too sensitive. We feel it’s important to tell stories of ordinary people which can’t be found in any textbook. These oral histories have not been properly documented and it’s a race against time to collect these before they are lost for good.”

Many of the Ko-Tai cast have experienced the same “historical” events which they depicted on stage. Ho estimated that at least half of the members were from the “lost community” that grew up in inner city George Town and had to leave their childhood homes in the name of development.


It is poignant that the characters they played were closely modelled on their parents and grandparents. The painstaking process of interviews, and interpreting and transforming these into various scenes of the play was ultimately a rewarding and beautiful aspect of the production for its members.

During the final show in Air Itam, a gentleman approached me as he had heard that “Rose Chan” would be performing that evening. He had obviously seen her in her heyday and drawing from his memory he demonstrated a series of sultry leg moves a la Rose. “Yes uncle, we will try not to disappoint,” I told him, silently praying that he would find our re-enactment of her famous snake dance just as enthralling. The pressure!

Just before the show began, I turned around in my seat and noticed a row of four ladies in their crisp sam foos with immaculately curled hair, all dressed up for the occasion. They had made such an effort and had come with great expectations of a good show. In that moment I immediately felt the lines between the stage and the audience blur. This is what good community theatre is all about, as it draws its inspiration from the local community, to engage, challenge and entertain. Out of the corner of my eye I caught uncle laughing and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Making waves, rocking the boat
Three years ago Ombak-Ombak artStudio burst onto Penang’s lacklustre arts scene with the highly acclaimed community performance Kisah Pulau Pinang. The musical explored Penang’s early history of multicultural migration through traditional gamelan music, lyrics set to traditional Penang Boria and Dondang Sayang and contemporary dance. Many of Ombak’s members have collaborated artistically since 2000 and continue to push boundaries in drama, original composition and contemporary dance. Ombak has participated in the Malaysian Freedom Film Festival, Penang Arts Festival, Heritage Heboh Street Festival and the George Town World Heritage Celebration.

Katharine Chua is a dancer and choreographer with Ombak Ombak ARTStudio.