The dead speak, and it’s asking who killed it?
But the living replies, who cares?
Never before has a murder-mystery cared less about solving its murder or mystery than Entourage: Murder Amongst Friends, but don’t consider this a slight against it.
It tries on the skin of an Agatha Christie novel, realises it doesn’t fit, so takes it off and focuses on the story it actually wants to tell.
Instead, the play is a charming, seductive, and alluring tribute to the Malaysian party scene of the ‘noughties’.
Entourage brings us to Kuala Lumpur, 1998, dropped right in the middle of its bustling party scene, full of drinking, sex, and designer drugs.
We’re introduced to a colourful cast of characters, first by their drunken, high stupor coming home from a wild night out. They’re slow, lethargic, almost on the verge of collapsing (one of them does). Brief dialogue hints at their relationship, but really we’re focused on the funky club music playing throughout, faithfully recreated to emulate the 2000s vibe.
And at the centre of it all is Ghani, played by ST Life Theatre Award winner, Ghafir Akbar.
An eccentric artist with an easy temper and razor-sharp tongue, it’s Ghani’s orbit of relationships: his houseguests who treat him like king, his long-time friends who faun over his every word, and his tense new acquaintances with secret histories, that build the story and world of Entourage.
Similar to his award-winning performance in Wild Rice’s Accidental Death of an Activist, Ghafir inhabits this difficult role effortlessly, delivering the late great Jit Murad’s lines like it was tailor-made.
This is impossible, of course, considering Jit Murad had written the lines all the way back in 2000, and how the play had never been performed.
In fact, Entourage was actually considered lost until its rediscovery after the playwright’s death. Jit’s final play then had its premiere debut at the Robert’s Theatre in the Campus Ampang on 5 December, serving as the closing act of 2025’s Jit Fest.
A 30-year partnership, continued
Entourage also continues the long-time collaboration between Jit Murad and Datuk Zahim Albakri, with the latter once again stepping in the role of director.
As such, there’s a natural motion in how the play unfolds itself. The dance between playwright and director can be complex, hinged on how the director brings to life the playwright’s vision, and this is even more difficult when one person in the relationship, usually the playwright, is no longer among the living.
But Entourage: Murder Amongst Friends, in all its elements, felt as if nothing was left on the table or compromised, delivering the full scope of Jit, for better or worse.
From the mixed-media experimentation with the five projector screens above the stage to the charming early 2000s set, reminiscent of a sitcom living room with a sofa right in the centre, to the brilliant period-appropriate costume designs (especially Ghani’s black, flowing coat!) Zahim faithfully tells the story of Entourage in full.
You can have some grievances towards the script itself, sometimes with its over-reliance on crass jokes that don’t always land or meandering scenes that lengthen an already lengthy play, but it felt brilliantly executed by a director with not just extensive experience in telling these kinds of stories, but a genuine love and respect for the material.
Party people
Although the play is Jit’s love letter to the party scene of KL during that specific era, it wants us to look beyond the sinful excess on the surface and into the inhabitants.
Like Ghani, they are flawed, troubled, almost-tragic individuals who find solace in the vices of ‘The Rectal Room’, the fictional night club that plays a central role in the play.
A film director stuck doing blockbusters, a party girl past her prime, an expat desperate to integrate, and other colourful characters brings to life the grander scene of Entourage’s world.
Turning to drugs, alcohol, and sex, these influences then intersect into their own connection among others, sometimes sparking harmony but often conflict.
How sharp can your wit be before it cuts, how far can you push a friend before they push back, and how many secrets can you really keep before they start to reveal themselves? All of these questions and more are at the heart of the relationships between the characters.
Jit didn’t seem particularly interested in the murder-solving aspect of a murder-mystery. There is no Poirot or Benoit Blanc character here to uncover clues and point at suspects. Honestly, there’s not even a single sober individual among them who should be trusted to make that decision.
Instead, his true love of the murder-mystery lies in the setup – unravelling the secret history between characters, creating chemistry and tension, and planting motives for murder for each individual.
Jit’s dialogue, as ever, continues to be funny and amusing, with lines like ‘Have some decorum, there are children and homos present’, and ‘Aren’t you allergic to anything not from Bulgari?’ exploding the theatre with laughter.
And most of the cast members seemed to have no problem delivering these lines. There were some questionable moments that maybe didn’t earn the reaction it hoped for, either on the part of the script or possibly the actor’s reading, but overall it felt like solid Jit Murad dialogue.
Besides Ghafir’s Ghani, the play’s other clear standout was Nabil Zakaria’s Wan, who felt like the only one who could match up to Ghafir’s energy and pace, and at times even outshone him.
One last hurrah
Entourage’s ending can be considered a bit out there for a murder-mystery, and in fact overstays its welcome with an unnecessary addition, but it fits so neatly within this Jit Murad framework that you don’t really care that it doesn’t fit the Agatha Christie one.
For what is most likely Jit Murad’s last ‘new’ play, Entourage: Murder Amongst Friends is a landmark and a relic of a bygone era, and what a blessing it is to have it actually staged. Unabashedly crass, shamelessly subversive, and purely Jit, it’s Malaysian’s theatre one last chance to enter the mind of one of its greatest playwrights.
Entourage: Murder Amongst Friends ran from 5 to 11 December 2025 at Robert’s Theatre in The Campus Ampang.
Image Credits: Keane De Netto (IG: @keanedenetto)
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