Jit Murad, celebrated Malaysian theatre stalwart, dies aged 62

Jit Murad, a respected thespian, had a long and celebrated career in the Malaysian performing arts scene, starting in the 1980s. Photo: Filepic

Jit Murad, a celebrated theatre actor-director-writer in the Malaysian arts scene, died earlier today.

The news was confirmed by fellow theatre veteran Jo Kukathas, who added that he died in his home in Kuala Lumpur. He was 62. The cause of the death is not known.

In a performing arts career that spanned more than 30 years, the Alor Setar-born, Kuala Lumpur-raised Jit established himself as one of the best playwrights in the country, with his influential theatre works and scripts often resonating beyond the stage.

In 1989, Jit (real name Aziz Mirzan Murad) co-founded Instant Cafe Theatre alongside theatre friends Jo Kukathas, Andrew Leci and Zahim Albakri. It was a local theatre company which went on to challenge and redefine theatremaking in Malaysia. It did comedy in theatres and serious plays in nightclubs. It did Shakespeare in the outdoors and political satire at government functions.

Jit was also part of a generation of young Malaysian theatremakers in the late 1980s who returned to Kuala Lumpur after studying abroad. In the United States, he studied Sociology and Urban Planning in Chicago, before obtaining a masters degree in 20th Century Art History in San Francisco, a decision that edged him to a career in theatre.

He came home to a career in advertising when he was spotted and cast in Thor Kah Hoong's play Caught In The Middle.

His acting credits through the 1990s were diverse and prolific, with appearances in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo & Juliet, The Merchant Of Venice, Death Of A Salesman, Death & The Maiden, Black Comedy, An Actor’s Nightmare, Art, As Is, Talking AIDS, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials Of Oscar Wilde and A Man For All Seasons.

As Instant Cafe Theatre grew from strength to strength, Jit also sharpened his skills as a playwright, actor and director, emerging as a prominent public intellectual with theatre shows examining contemporary society.

In 1992, he wrote his first play Gold Rain And Hailstones, which has gone on to be a celebrated work in the Malaysian theatre scene. The play examines the notion of home, belonging and identity; issues which have resonated time and again through various versions of the production, including a successful restaging in 2019.

"The theme of Gold Rain And Hailstones was interesting (about Malay students who go overseas and face adjustment problems when they return) because there are so many of us being sent overseas and it is the way we adapt to the different culture and way of life. Yet when we returned we are supposed to act in a certain way like a good Malay should, which is rather ironic in itself," Jit was quoted as saying in an interview with The Star in May, 1995.

In 1993, Jit helped start Dramalab (with Zahim Albakri), an offshoot of Instant Cafe Theatre, which encouraged new writing and introduced new theatre players.

Jit’s other notable works include Storyteller (1996), based on South-East Asian spoken traditions, Visits (2002), a comedy reworked from a three-monologue effort from the early 1990s, and Spilt Gravy On Rice (2002), which won four awards at the inaugural Cameronian Arts Award 2003.

As a stand-up comedian in the mid-1990s, Jit was best known for selling out venues with his Renee Choy routine, a flamboyant character who was billed as "Malaysia's premier stand up hairdresser".

"Hairdressers are seen to be privy to a lot of issues and Renee gets away with most of his remarks as he is basically a kampung boy made good. He doesn't have a judgmental attitude and doesn't intellectualise the vignettes of life.

"There is a certain street-smartness about Renee... the simplification of issues which is split to what's wrong and what's not. His views are more truthful than those of intellectuals who tend to over-examine... that's the problem with them," said Jit in an interview with The Star in April, 1997.

Jit was the middle child of a family of three. His father was the former education director-general Tan Sri Murad Mohamed Noor, and he was the older brother to film director Na’a Murad.

On social media, there has been a flood of tributes to Jit.