Our Adaptation · 2 of 2
Concept notes on transposing Rome to the night market
Concept notes on adapting into Pasar Malam context
Concept Notes
Rome in Julius Caesar is a republic terrified of a king. A pasar malam is a community of small stall owners terrified of rent. It's the same fear at a smaller scale: one person gets too big, and everyone else pays for it. Once we saw that, the substitutions mostly made themselves. The crown became a prime spot at MBS, the thing Jalil reaches for that the others can't afford. The Senate became the EC. Cassius's forged letters became post-it notes pasted on Bao's stall, because that's how a hawker would fake a petition. The daggers became loan sharks, summoned by the conspirators withholding rent, which lets the conspirators keep their hands clean the way Brutus never could. The Forum became a press conference, and the Roman mob became six stall owners with declining sales. Some things wouldn't transpose. Nobody dies in a night market, so Jalil is dragged off and detained instead. There's no Philippi, so the police close the play. The soothsayer became Soo, an adviser we hear about but never meet, which is roughly what happens to warnings anyway. The language changed to Singlish, Mandarin and Malay because the setting demanded it. Nobody at a pasar malam speaks in proper English, and the moment they did, the market stopped feeling like a place. What we didn't change is the argument. Tradition or progress, and who gets to decide. Singapore has that argument about hawker centres, old estates and rent every year. It was already ours.