'Norm And Ahmed': Dangers of racism in era of segregation

Kingsley Judd, who plays the racist Norm in the play, reveals that some of the things that his character says makes him feel uncomfortable. AZMAN GHANI / The Star

Thirty years ago, The Actors Studio (TAS) staged Australian playwright Alex Buzo’s controversial two-hander play Norm And Ahmed at Universiti Malaya’s Experimental Theatre, marking its very first theatre production in Kuala Lumpur.

The play depicts a midnight encounter between Norm, a blue collar worker and former Vietnam war veteran, and a Pakistani student named Ahmed at a bus stop somewhere in Australia. The former approaches the latter for a lighter and what ensues is a conversation laced with racial prejudices.