At a Plank Bridge

At a Plank Bridge tells the story of two men during World War II, who meet accidentally on a back country road in Malaya 1945, just after the surrender of the Japanese occupation army. Unknown to most people, the infamous “Death Railroad” between Burma and Bangkok in World War II was not just built by the backbreaking labor of PoWs as depicted in The Bridge on the River Kwai.
It has long been neglected in history that the Japanese also conscripted thousands of civilian Asians from conquered countries such as Malaysia, Philippines and Taiwan. In its story of a fateful confrontation between two men at the end of WW II, this play puts human faces on the unknown
Asians who perished by the hundreds of thousands from extremely unsanitary and inhumane conditions in Japanese work camps. The play is a poignant indictment against the inhumanity and civilian suffering of war.

Written by a Malaysian writer of Indian descent, At a Plank Bridge is the first Malaysian play to ever receive a professional production by a New York theater as part of its regular season. This production will also be presented in Kuala Lumpur in February 2003 (with the same cast) as part of the 40th Anniversary celebration of the Fulbright Program in Malaysia. Tina Chen directs.