As I found a place to sit in a dimly lit theatre, the creepy doll heads adorned on bannisters locked eyes with me. ImmediatelyI knew that nothing could have prepared me for the hair-raising multi-sensory storytelling session I was about to witness. On the 6th of January 2023, I watched Cherita Hantu…Kembali (Ghost Stories…Return), a collaboration between Hafidz Abdul Rahman and The Arts House for Textures, an annual Singapore literature festival. Cherita Hantu…Kembali (Cherita), is the second instalment of real horror stories curated by Hafidz written for the stage. Following the first 2021 edition of Cherita Hantu (Ghost Stories), Cherita consists of 5 chilling new stories with an overarching theme of ‘The Great Return’:
- Nyai: A grandmother plagued by an ominous unwanted house guest
- Ward 72: A shift at a hospital with an undead colleague and patient
- Bukit Merung: A trip to the forest gone terribly wrong
- Ummi: A son who desperately wishes to follow his mother into the afterlife
- Tangas: Enslaving men through food and ancient witchcraft
Before Cherita began, a woman dressed as a pontianak appeared. She clasped her dead unborn child and sobbed while walking around the stage peering at the audience members in the first row who attempted to avert their gaze. For those who watch horror movies through covered eyes, the level of interaction the U-shape stage set-up allows for spelled trouble (Yes, I am talking about myself). While the play lets you see spectres in the “flesh”, it also plays with your olfactory senses. The entire theatre was filled with the unmistakable scent of frangipani which was thought to forebode the presence of a pontianak in Malay folklore. It was this attention to detail that made the play feel more real against my scaredy-cat wishes.
What added to the eerie ambience was the backstory of The Arts House that the playwright Hafidz spoke to the audience about. He told us that the security guard mentioned sightings of a spirit of a young boy in the building. When he continued to mention how the lights switched off at the 2021 show with no explanation, I wondered if it was too late to make a run for it.
One of the moments that really stood out to me was during “Ward 72”. When an elderly lady entered and sauntered around the stage, I felt a chill up my spine. Then, a little while later the actors mentioned that it got a bit chilly. That cold breeze I felt was a deliberate change in the air conditioning to simulate the temperature drop one usually associates with the presence of spirits! I also vividly remember how a corpse dummy seemed to fall out of the sky and land on the lap of a lady in the front row. As she yelled out swear words in shock the audience burst out laughing and I counted my blessings from the middle row.
Each ghost story held their own and had me on the edge of my seat (mostly because I was ready to leave if I got too scared). There was a good mix of humour and horror that made the hour long performance feel far too short. Interestingly, all of the stories ended on a cliffhanger which frustrated me at first. Just as the tension of a story reached its pinnacle, everything faded to black except the projector indicating the title of the next story. Did the protagonist get killed? Will the evil spirit be stopped? In retrospect, having questions unanswered was a masterful move by Hafidz. As audiences are left with their active imaginations to speculate about the ending, the ghost stories seem to live on after the curtain call.
The entire play felt like a roller coaster. You get nervous as you wait in line, anticipating the turns, drops, and loop-the-loops. Then you ride the roller coaster screaming in a curious cocktail of fear and delight wanting to do it all again. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and highly recommend getting tickets to the show if there is a third instalment. Cherita is a unique and immersive display of Malay folklore that will show your horror like you have never seen before. While Cherita is performed in Malay, there are English surtitles (subtitles for plays) that are projected on a screen. The show sold out very quickly this year and if you are thinking of getting tickets next time, best believe you are going to have to fight me for one.