Portrait Of A President paints head of state Yusof Ishak as anti-hero

Biopics assume importance, and the life of self-ruled Singapore’s first head of state, a man whose face adorns the very currency being used today, rightly fits this category.

- Clement Yong

Yusof: Portrait Of A President, staged by Teater Ekamatra, stars (from far left) Dalifah Shahril, Sani Hussin, Ghafir Akbar and Farah Ong.

(AKBAR SYADIQ)

But is this any excuse for a play that feels determined to remain stale? On the occasion of SG60, Teater Ekamatra brings back Zizi Majid’s 2015 play about Mr Yusof Ishak that paints him as a radical centrist and a moderate who is essentially a bit behind the times.

While his starting Utusan Melayu — a Malay-language daily aimed at uplifting the Malay community - pre-World War II was a hard-earned pursuit of ideals, postwar, the paper and the man seem to fall out of step with a growing desire to agitate for independence.

As with the British, Yusof comes across a little bit obsessed with the “communists”, preferring not to talk about politics and questioning the radical ideologies behind his journalists’ articles.

Zizi’s script shows how Yusof is willing to hire women and allows him finally a moment of principle, but the play’s overall effect, leading up to his speech rallying Singaporeans at the 1961 National Day Mass Rally in June, seems to undercut this purported climax.