A Malay-language production set against the backdrop of a young nation on the cusp of change, Yusof (2015), examines the life of Singapore’s first president. In a non-linear fashion, the play spans Encik Yusof’s teenage years and familial interactions, to his foray into journalism, and finally his role as the Yang di-Pertuan Negara.

Yusof was commissioned in 2015 for Pesta Raya – Malay Festival of Arts, in celebration of Singapore’s 50th birthday. The play was written by noted playwright and director Zizi Azah, who is also Yusof Ishak’s grand-niece, and features a stellar cast led by Sani Hussin as Encik Yusof and Siti Khalijah Zainal as his wife Puan Noor Aishah.

Writer Daniel Teo sits down in a conversation with Zizi Azah, as she discusses how Yusof was brought from an idea to life on stage. This is an excerpt of the interview.

Find out more about the making of Yusof and other Esplanade Commissions at the Idea to Stage exhibition in the Esplanade Concourse, from 4 Jul 2025 – 3 Jan 2027.

Catch the restaging of Yusof by Teater Ekamatra on 17, 18, 19 & 24 Oct 2025 at the Singtel Waterfront Theatre at Esplanade.

Daniel: Thanks for speaking with me, Zizi. As a start, can you tell me how this whole idea to write a play about Singapore's first president started?  

Zizi: There had been conversations with Rydwan Anwar, who is now the Head of Theatre¹. Initially, I wanted to write a play that was set in the past that was about my dad's group of friends and where they lived in a particular part of Singapore. That was my initial idea. Then Rydwan said, “Okay, let's workshop a bit more. Let's think more about it. I like the idea of something that's in the past. But how about something else?” And so—because Yusof Ishak is my granduncle—I said, “Oh, there's actually nothing about him.” He's not really well documented. He's the guy on the money (Singapore’s currency note), but people don't really know who he is, who he was, what transpired that made him the first president, and what he was like as a person.

I had grown up hearing these stories about him and what an amazing person he was, so I thought, “Okay, how about I write that story?” Rydwan thought, “This is great because then people can get to know him better.” 

Daniel: I see. You were also working with Haresh Sharma as the dramaturg. Which part of the process did Haresh come in to help or to assist?

Zizi: Yes. Haresh was such an important part of the process, because he had such a fantastic sense of how to create dramatic action and how to push that dramatic action forward. I think Haresh came in as a dramaturg after the second draft—after I had done the interview (with Encik Yusof’s wife)—or was it midway?

We really had a lot of discussions about dramatic structure, because so much of the play is all flashbacks—what happened when he was young, how he grew up, what he was like—and having to track all that stuff. So, the play kind of goes back and forth  and Haresh had a lot of great ideas of how to structure the play and how to make it much, much better. 

And the sessions with the cast really helped. That’s when I brought in the very boring script that I had. And then we (Haresh and I) would workshop some scenes, and that really helped me to know much better what his relationships were like. For example, if you look at the first scene of the play, which is a scene of them having—

Daniel: —a Hari Raya party.

Zizi: Yeah, that was a scene that had come up when we were workshopping. I knew that I wanted to have a scene where they're having a meal together. What did they talk about? What makes the scene come alive? 

At that point, Haresh was already involved. We did a reading, and he would give me feedback about what scenes were working, what scenes were not working, and what was interesting in terms of structure. For example, that scene (Hari Raya party scene) is very good to talk about, because initially it was not the opening scene. But he said, “Hey, why don't you try to open the play with this scene? Because it's Pesta Raya² and it'll be fun to open with this scene.” 

And I think it was a really great idea on his part, not just because of Pesta Raya, but also because it starts the play off where you immediately get to know the relationships between the three brothers. And the play centres around the relationship of the three brothers. That's a choice I made to focus on. Because when you do a biopic, you can't tell everything. Actually, he had nine siblings. But I didn't have a cast of nine, so I couldn’t tell the story of all the siblings. What do I focus on? And what is it I had to choose? What's the angle of the story?

Daniel: How do you toe the line of being historically factual versus being dramatic for drama's sake? They are two extremes.  

Zizi: It really became about knowing more about his history and picking instances in his life that were formative to who he was, while also finding a trajectory that would make it interesting for the audience. 

What I was really looking for in terms of dramatic structure for the play was, how do I create this compression of emotion so that it becomes the key thing that will pull him out of a state? Because his life was dramatic—him leading Utusan Melayu, [the newspaper] that he had started, and having politics get in the way of it, then Tunku (Abdul Rahman)³ wanting to control what he was writing about, and finally, leaving Utusan Melayu. And that was really disappointing. Also, on a personal level—the loss of his mother.  

It was about compressing those scenes together, so that when he gets that letter from Lee Kuan Yew inviting him back to Singapore, there’s a sense of catharsis. That happens for us as the audience, and that sense of catharsis is also important because that part of the play is also one of the agendas (of the play).

Zizi: Something that I also felt really strongly when the play was staged, being in the audience, was that there was a great sense of pride in the Malay community, which is not something we often get to celebrate in terms of the formative years of Singapore. We're often told of this narrative where we were kicked out, the (racial) riots, all of that. There's the framework of what we're given, and there's not a lot of sense of pride. When actually, as a community, we're as patriotic as all other communities, right?

So in Lee Kuan Yew's invitation to Yusof Ishak—and they were good friends, right? They were close before that—there was this sense of coming back to serve your country, a great sense of pride in the role, we as Malays, play in the formative years in a positive, pride-giving way. And so, I think that was behind wanting to create a cathartic moment for when he gets the letter, accepts it and then makes that speech as the President.

Daniel: Very cool. When you're writing about something, about contributing to the Malay community, contributing to the building of Singapore, I'm wondering how do you feel about it as yourself and as a playwright, working on something like this? And what kind of emotions and feelings do you have towards it, while at the same time having that family connection?

Zizi: The feeling is that I have to make sure that I do my due diligence and proper research. Cross your T's and dot your I's, right? You do everything properly and do everything really well. Also because it's us, it's family. So I had to make sure that my family can say, “Oh, this is something we are proud of.” I think that was the biggest pressure. The sense of wanting to do it right for my family.

Another one of the things that I wanted to capture was the joy of family. Yeah, it's a biopic and there's some very serious stuff that happens in it, but also, where's the joy of the play? So I had a lot of fun writing scenes where the brothers are being joyful with each other, and also the funny horror-comedy bit in one of the scenes. It's really about—how do you write a play that is true to the facts, true to the research, true to who he was and his life with his wife, but also enjoyable for the audience? That not just relays his story but also celebrates the joys of his story too. And this big aim of him being the pride of the community, I didn't really think of that as a big aim. Because I knew that it would come with the story. I knew that it would come with it. If the story is well told, that would just come into play.

Discover interesting facts about the life of Yusof Ishak.

Daniel: How do you feel about the 2025 restaging of the play?  

Zizi: I feel very happy that they're restaging this play. I feel quite proud of the fact that it's being restaged because I think we should know our past more, and to know our first president more. There are some changes that I want to make to the script. For example, making the female characters more present, and having more stories about the other brother who was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, just to make it a little bit more full. 

Daniel: Maybe you could talk a little more about how Esplanade was involved in that original production in getting it to stage.  

Zizi: Yeah, sure. Esplanade was really very involved, actually, in every step of the way. Rydwan felt it was important that it was historically accurate in terms of costume and set. So, we dedicated a lot of effort to that. The costume designer was Fatimah Mohsin. She did a very detailed design that was really historically accurate.

Zizi: And the set design that we had for the piece was historically accurate as well. My husband (Izmir Ickbal) designed the set. The furniture pieces were rented from a company that restores vintage furniture. That was something that we did that Esplanade supported and was fully onboard with, because historical accuracy was so important.  

But it was quite crazy because we had all this furniture. You should have seen backstage. All the furniture was stacked up and there was so much stuff. There was a very realist approach to it, and I think that's part of the reason why the staging of it was so satisfying for the audience, because everything was done and realised in a very full way.  

Daniel: There are so many tensions going on—between personal, between public, between family, between history, or what is public history. And then this tension between writing the play and trying to direct it, because sometimes it can be quite difficult to do both. Maybe you could speak a little bit more about why you thought it was important for it to be done in a realist fashion, and also about this drive towards historical accuracy. 

Zizi: I took it very seriously that I cannot take the liberties of non-realism. Because it is about this person who I respect immensely, who is family, and who played such an important role for the nation. And so, for me—really being on top of it myself, first—and then the creative team, making sure it was historically accurate, was part of doing that due diligence, right? It goes back to this idea of: What are the parameters you're working with? This is the thing that I always tell myself.  

This is a piece that I wrote a really long time ago. I have grown as a playwright. The plays I write now are based on geopolitical circumstances. So what is important for me is to earn the right to tell the story, and that involves a great amount of research—to really understand the politics of a situation and the circumstances that surround a person's life, for example. This idea of earning the right to tell the story started with Yusof, with wanting to do the due diligence of portraying that story as well as I could and not take flights of fancy. And the flights of fancy, what is creative, is in terms of its dramatic structure, the flashbacks—that is creative. But what he went through…those are all based on fact.

Watch a recorded excerpt of the 2015 performance as part of Replay – Screenings from the Esplanade Archives, available from 10 Jul – 31 Dec 2025.