“We’re talking about death, right? I’ll talk about death.”
Joe Hasham, 77, actor, director, playwright, thespian in every sense of the word, often finds himself thinking about death, but not just his own.
“Do I want to go before Faridah, or do I want Faridah to go before me?”
Malaysia’s First Lady of Theatre, Faridah Merican, turns 87 this year. They’ve have been married for more than three decades, having founded The Actors Studio together in 1989.
“I’m always faced with that dilemma, if I go before Faridah, who’s gonna look after her? And if Faridah goes before me… How will I survive?”
We stayed in silence for a while, before Joe pulled us back in.
“Yeah I don’t think I wanna go down that road anymore,” he laughs, “Let’s go back.”
The cast and crew of God’s Waiting Room had just finished a particularly tough day of rehearsals. Their schedules were ramping up, the bi-weekly rehearsals becoming daily as they got closer and closer to the premiere date of 22nd January.
I sat down with God’s Waiting Room director and playwright Joe Hasham and composer Wesley, who had been celebrating the exhausting but fulfilling rehearsal, snagged by a particular scene.
“There was one scene that had been bothering the actors like crazy,” said Joe, “Wonderful scene, but they couldn’t come to grips with it.”
The actors in question aren’t exactly novices to the stage. In fact, the exact opposite: Faridah Merican, Anne James, and Patrick Teoh are all veterans of Malaysian theatre, with careers that span decades.
“So with the help of Gavin [Yap], who was sitting in on the rehearsal today, we tore the scene apart, and then put it back together,” Joe smiled brightly at the recent memory, “And it is the most wonderful [thing].”
This speaks greatly to Joe’s philosophy to directing, to encourage a collaborative process with not just his actors, but the entire creative team.
This effort to include everyone within the collaboration process naturally extends to the composer, Wesley, who was actually a late addition to the creative team.
“The person we were supposed to have for a music composer, unfortunately, didn’t work out,” said Joe, “So Jacqueline Teng recommended this young fella here, and he came to the first rehearsal.”
And according to them both, the relationship was instant magic.
“The next day he came back with two pieces of music, and then three days later he’d written music for the whole play!”
Wesley, a Malaysian composer and orchestrator, can be considered a relative newcomer to the theatre scene, with his only other involvement in theatre being a Short+Sweet musical back in 2018.
Instead, his music career has been focused on films. He’s done work as a music copyist and orchestrator for Ne Zha 2, I Did It My Way, and The Goldfinger, among others.
Wesley’s film experience brought a very interesting and unique take to composing music for theatre.
“What I love about what he’s done with this is that the music is very unpredictable,” Joe said, “It’s more filmic than it is stage.”
Speaking on his experience on creating the music of God’s Waiting Room, Wesley mentioned it was by the acting on stage and the strength of the script really inspired the pieces he created.
“It was by their acting, the script, and certain lines within the dialogue that created the musical motive [of the play].”
When asked if there was any difference between composing for theatre and film, Wesley mentioned he appreciated the organic nature of the stage more than film.
“For theatre, since it’s live acting, it feels totally different for me. And I would say I prefer more theatre [projects] right now,” he laughs, “And it’s because of the sparks [that exist] in live experiences.”
The last play Joe had written was 2024’s The Sisters Soong, an epic historical production with a dozen cast members, an ensemble, orchestra, three acts, and according to him, “500 pages of research”.
God’s Waiting Room, with its cast of three and 90-minute running time, is not exactly on the same scale. However, per Joe’s words, this was “77 years worth of research.”
I asked if he ever imagined that he’d still be doing theatre at his age.
“Oh god yes,” he said, as if it were the most obvious thing, “God willing, I will be doing theatre till the day I die, which I hope isn’t too soon.”
He then lists professions he thinks he might have had if he wasn’t in theatre: chef, fireman, possibly a barber.
“I cut Faridah’s hair, you know, that’s why it looks so wonderful.”
But then he re-iterates that theatre was truly the only path for him.
“I started theatre at the age of 14, in school. Now, I’m 77,” he said, “The performing arts is the only thing I’ve ever done in my entire life.”
Playing the role of both playwright and director for a production can cause friction, but Joe mentions that he can be “very easy.”
“I don’t believe in being a dictator. My style of directing could be considered collaborative. I listen to my actors, because, my god, sometimes they come up with some wonderful suggestions.”
“Other times their suggestions are like shit. But you listen to them, you listen to your actors, you work with your actors.”
And according to Joe, it’s always apparent when a play suffered under a directorial regime.
“You can always tell,” he scoffs, “I go to many plays, and I look at the play, and I come out thinking, ‘Wow, the director must be an absolute arsehole,’ because that [behaviour] doesn’t get the best out of his actors or her actors. Why? Because they are stipulating what must be done and how it must be done.”
His directing method is never to tell his actors how to do something, but instead he’d make suggestions on their throughline or the choices they’d have.
“Actors have a responsibility to be creative,” Joe said, “Just as a director has a responsibility to work with his or her actors.”
Among the actors that Joe Hasham has worked with, he has a special relationship with Patrick Teoh, who, with Faridah, he introduced to theatre.
“He was part of my very first acting class. I knew Patrick very well, and Faridah had known him for years,” he said.
In fact, parts of Joe’s relationship with Patrick even made its way into the play.
“We used to drink a lot in Malaysia,” Joe said, “And at 4 o’clock in the morning, we would go to Jalan Tun Perak, where the old Maybank headquarters were, and outside of there was this amazing bak kut teh stall.”
He laughs and smiles at the memory.
“I’ve incorporated a lot of life in the play.”
Another way ‘life’ incorporated itself into God’s Waiting Room was during a trip to Australia, where Joe, with Faridah and some school friends, were going on a road trip in the south coast of New South Wales.
They passed a small town, populated mostly by senior citizens who wanted to retire by the seaside.
“[We were] passing through this beautiful town called Sussex Inlet, and Jim turned to me and said, ‘Joe, this place is known as God’s Waiting Room’.”
“I didn’t have a title for the play. I hadn’t even written the play. The play was in here”, he pointed towards his head, “and in here,” then towards his heart.
“But the minute he said that, Faridah turned to me and said, ‘That’s the title of your play.’”
In fact, it was Faridah who inspired him to write of God’s Waiting Room in the first place.
“It’s very simple,” he said, “Most mornings I wake up, and Faridah is laying next to me in bed, and she’s still asleep.”
“And I like looking at her when she’s asleep.”
He continues, his voice slightly breaking, “And knowing that, that’s not gonna be forever, you know. It’s something that will… will end one day. And facing that, I thought ‘I have to write a play for Faridah’, and that’s what this is.”
“This is a play for Faridah, and that’s why I wrote it.”
God’s Waiting Room runs from 22 January to 1 February 2026 in KLPAC. Written and directed by Joe Hasham, it stars Faridah Merican, Patrick Teoh, and Anne James.
Image Credit: KLPAC, WesleyWKL
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