The People of the Forest: A Rain Forest Musical

The People of the Forest highlight the plight of the orangutan deep in the rainforests of Sabah, and other parts of Malaysia. The orangutan is the largest tree-living mammal in the world. They are facing extinction due to excessive clearance and destruction of big tracts of forests for commercial logging, legal or otherwise, plus, their own low reproductive rate which makes orangutan population excessively vulnerable to mortality. Their population just takes a long time to recover from a decline. It takes about 4 years of weaning before the young orangutan becomes independent from their mother after which she will be ready to give birth to a second young.

This musical moves around a baby orangutan which is named Wira or hero. Wira grows up to be a mischievous individual which never takes 'no' for an answer, so we will follow his adventures in the rainforest with his friends, the proboscis monkey, the pygmy elephant, the mouse-deer, the Sumatran rhino, the hornbill, the clouded leopard, the Malayan tiger, the banteng, the sun bear and the tapir, all endangered species. Wira's adventures will lead him to rescue an infant female orang utan in captivity of illegal loggers in the forest. There are 13 songs in the musical. The live orchestra accompanying the play should use bamboo flutes, bamboo wind chimes, ziters, sampoton, thus capturing the rhythm of the rainforest.

Roselina Khir Johari