ASHOW was staged in Bandung decades ago. Auntie Jeanne, the 74-year-old grandmother who recalls this story, does not remember exactly when it happened. But her memory at the time recorded that Kwee Thiam Jing, her father, played the role of king. And she quickly sensed that he was following the instinct that she knew so well from her early years: his mischief-making.

Kwee then departed from the script. From the stage he called to another actor wh