We Could **** You Mr. Birch Kee Thuan Chye

The central premise of this play is an episode from history — the murder of James Wheeler Woodford Birch, the first British Resident in colonial Malaya. "We Could **** You Mr Birch" makes for a different play as it doesn't narrate a story, rather it alternates between real-life drama and historical episodes. Here we have the characters questioning the authenticity of the historical facts presented, making the audience wonder how real history really is. At the end J. W. W. Birch is murdered but the facts surrounding his killing, as the readers know them, becomes questionable. Switching between reality and fiction, legend and history, Kee Thuan Chye's play makes the audience think about the realities of life, and how history can be subjective to a writer's interpretations.