Ever since Malaysian theatremaker Norzizi Zulkifli, 50, had her first taste of directing a scene from Macbeth during her graduate studies in Britain 22 years ago, she has thought of Shakespeare’s Scottish play as a quintessentially Nusantara story rich with resonances from the region.
Many will see the similarities between Macbeth and stories of Malay kings who kill for power, for example, or Shakespeare’s three witches and practices of Malay magic.
For Norzizi, another parallel looms large in her mind – the prowess of Lady Macbeth reminds her of the matriarchal culture of the Minangkabau, visually represented by the women’s iconic buffalo horn-shaped headdress.
So, it was natural that Norzizi went on to adapt Macbeth using a Minangkabau folk theatre tradition known as randai, incorporating song, dance, drama and silat with origins in West Sumatra. Randai Macbeth – which is in Bahasa Malaysia with English surtitles – plays at the Esplanade Theatre Studio in Singapore from April 16-19 as part of Pesta Raya – Malay Festival of Arts 2026.
The play, which premiered in Kuala Lumpur in 2024, went on to win eight awards at Malaysia’s performing arts award, the BOH Cameronian Arts Awards.
For Norzizi, the cherry on top of the cake was a “dream come true” invitation to perform at Esplanade’s Pesta Raya – the first international stop for the production, which has also been invited to perform in Russia in 2026.
It is a rare treat for theatregoers in Singapore as Randai Macbeth is the first theatre show to be brought in from overseas for Pesta Raya since 2013, when the festival commissioned the play Akulah by Malaysian director Erma Fatima.
On the relevance of Macbeth today, Norzizi brings up the universal lessons in Shakespeare that can be translated into different cultural contexts. In a Zoom interview, she says: “It’s about power and status, but what is interesting to me about Macbeth is when the two characters feel guilt. In today’s world, we still have this greed for power and status, but there is no guilt.”
New songs have been written for this performance but, in a testament to how Minangkabau ideas have resonated with Shakespearean ones, three traditional songs have been retained in the production.
Like traditional randai performances, Randai Macbeth will also be performed in a round – but Norzizi teases that there will also be some significant breaks from this tradition.
The production is by the Traditional Performing Arts Centre of the National Academy of Arts, Cultural and Heritage of Malaysia or Aswara, where Norzizi graduated from and had studied randai for two semesters. Even before that, Norzizi’s father, who is involved in the Malay martial arts scene, had taken her to see randai performances when she was young.
Audiences who want a taste of the randai art form can catch a free opening performance by Aswara at the Esplanade Courtyard on April 16 at 6.40pm.
So far, her intercultural play has successfully brought together two very different kinds of theatre audiences.
“Two professors teaching Shakespeare came to me and thanked me for making Shakespeare accessible to lots of people. Another audience member reacted by saying that he never knew traditional theatre is so fun to watch.”
This is not her first time working with randai, having first directed the genre in the work Randai Uda Dan Dara, based on a text by Malaysian National Laureate Usman Awang – a love story that is incidentally also based on Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet.
“Every time I sell my idea about adapting Shakespeare, I end up regretting it – because the challenge happens when I’m writing the adaptation,” says Norzizi with a laugh.
“You must know what to retain and what to invent,” she says of the challenge.
Despite the difficulty, Norzizi relishes the challenge of such intercultural work. Her next venture? Refreshing The Comedy Of Errors through a dance-drama from Kelantan – what she is calling Mak Yong Shakespeare. – The Straits Times/Asian News Network
