As the curtain rises on the Omnibus Theatre’s stage this week, a haunting tale of brotherhood, loss, and the complexities of the human condition unfolds. The Lonesome Death of Eng Bunker is a profound exploration of solitude, assimilation, and the ghosts that haunt us all.
We sat down with writer and performer Tobi Poster-Su and director Iskandar Sharazuddin to delve deeper into the heart of this unique production.
What initially sparked your interest in the story of Chang and Eng Bunker, and what led you to create this performance?
Tobi: A central conceit of the show, which is true, is that me and my brother read about Chang and Eng Bunker as young children and I’ve been unable to shake the image of their deaths ever since—they were conjoined twins and Chang died an hour or so before Eng, who found himself without his bother for the first time in his life. The show is really me trying to figure out what that means, and why the story resonated with me. The straightforward answer is that they were among very few ESEA diaspora figures I encountered at that age so of course they made an impression—but of course there’s more to it than that.
The show explores themes of assimilation and solitude. Can you elaborate on how these themes resonate with you personally and why you chose to focus on them in this production?
Tobi: Without giving too much away, the costs of assimilation emerged as a central theme right from the start. The image of Eng carrying the body of his late brother brings to mind the ghosts we might carry with us as diasporic subjects—whether it’s the ghost of familial languages unspoken, family you might never meet, or a forgotten recipe for chicken. There’s a loneliness to that sense of increasingly tenuous connection to your heritage.
How did you approach the process of writing and performing this piece, particularly in capturing the emotional complexities of Eng’s experience?
Tobi: A key part of my approach has been to acknowledge, to both myself and the audience, that Chang and Eng are, and will always remain, essentially unknowable to me. The show is less about capturing Eng’s experience and more about using the experience as a springboard to try to understand some broader questions—and being honest about that once you start writing about questions of loneliness, guilt, nostalgia etc, that naturally becomes overlaid with all kinds of emotional colours.
Puppetry plays a central role in the production. How do you use puppetry to convey Eng’s inner turmoil and the complex relationship between the twins?
Tobi: I think for me one of the interesting and useful things about puppetry is that it resists an authoritative viewpoint on the characters portrayed. What I mean by that is that we all know, really, that puppets don’t have an interior life in the sense that human beings have. I know some puppeteers resent being seen as playing with dolls but for me, puppetry is a great way of reminding myself and the audience, that that’s all we’re ever doing when we tell another person’s story. Puppetry creates a meta-narrative about my attempts to understand and embody Chang and Eng.
Can you describe your collaboration with director Iskandar Sharazuddin and the rest of the creative team in bringing this vision to life?
Tobi: The team has been a joy to work with—it’s been humbling to get to work with so many brilliant creatives, all of whom not only make the show better, but make me a better theatre-maker, and of course, there’s a particular joy to getting to work with an ESEA creative and production team, which remains a rare experience for me.
It’s my first time collaborating with Iskandar and it has been really joyful. We have a similar vocabulary and he has a brilliant eye for how the various bodies on stage will serve the story. There’s a generosity to how he holds the space, which gives a lot of freedom to play and work instinctively. Iskandar is very comfortable sitting on the cusp of ‘too ridiculous’, which is where a lot of my best ideas happen.
What do you hope audiences will take away from this performance? Are there any specific messages or emotions you aim to evoke?
Tobi: Our hope is that audiences leave with some questions (and no answers) about the demands and costs of assimilation into Western cultural contexts, and who pays those costs. Theirs is an immigrant success story, but like so many success stories, it’s built on the suffering of others. Oh, and we want them to leave singing the catchy songs.
Director Iskandar Sharazuddin
How did you and Tobi Poster-Su collaborate to develop the concept and vision for this unique production?
Iskandar:The Lonesome Death of Eng Bunker is a development of a creative idea formed from a core memory of Tobi’s that has been living rent-free in their head for 30-odd years. It came to me in the form of some sprawling text, a compelling pitch for some visual storytelling with puppetry, and an artist-maker in the form of Tobi who wanted to perform it. From there, the invitation to temper the work and shape it into performance material from Tobi felt really clear and really exciting. We’ve taken Tobi’s initial conceptual design ideas and textual provocations and engaged in a rigorous and at times forensic process of questioning form, content, and intention. It has been a part text-based process and part devised process generating content in the rehearsal room together through play and improvisation.
What attracted you to this project and what specific aspects of the story resonated with you as a director?
Iskandar: Firstly, I don’t get asked to direct all that much. My bread and butter is as a Movement Director / Artist so it is flattering when someone is interested in having me creatively hold the entire process. Secondly, this work is a personal intimate journey for Tobi set against a wider panoramic sense of drama around Asian diaspora identity, belonging, and assimilation. There are a lot of touch points for me, as a mixed race British Southeast Asian man in both Tobi’s personal narrative intertwined with the real historical narrative of the conjoined twins, Eng & Chang Bunker.
The Lonesome Death of Eng Bunkerr promises to be a haunting and evocative theatrical experience that will stay with you long after the curtain falls. By blending puppetry, music, and striptease, Poster-Su and Sharazuddin create a unique and visceral performance that explores the complexities of the human condition.
Innovative staging, evocative puppetry, and a haunting score combine to create a truly unforgettable theatrical experience. The Lonesome Death of Eng Bunker pushes the boundaries of storytelling, inviting you to see the world through a new lens.
