3 Queens: Three Friends, Too Much Ego & A Curse

By Jessica Ye (Jessica Yap)

I left 3 Queens thinking about friendship, and more specifically, about how three people can love each other dearly and still find ways to drive each other completely mad.

I went into the play expecting a story about three women and their friendship. What I got was something much more familiar: three people with their own problems, insecurities, ambitions and, occasionally, their own version of reality.

Written by Haresh Sharma and directed by Haresh Sharma and Adib Kosnan, 3 Queens follows Bedah, Zeina and Aida, played by Siti Hajar Gani, Munah Bagharib and Siti Khalijah Zainal. The three have known each other for years, and we meet them at different points in their lives as Hari Raya comes around.

The play moves between Malay and English, but never in a way that feels difficult to follow. English captions are flashed on the screens whenever needed, so you are never left wondering what was said. In fact, the mix of languages is part of what makes 3 Queens feel so recognisably local. It is as local as a play can get, right down to the way these women speak to each other.

Years pass between some of these encounters, and you can feel it. Someone has changed. Someone has become more successful. Someone has become more consumed by what she believes in. The friendship is still there, but it is no longer quite the friendship they remember.

I particularly enjoyed watching what happens when Zeina becomes so engrossed in her own passion that she almost forgets there are two other people in the room. Her convictions are sincere, but there are moments when you want to tell her to look up and notice what she is doing to her friends.

And then there is jealousy, which the play takes to a wonderfully dramatic place when one of the women actually puts a curse on her closest friend because she is jealous.

Yes, a curse.

It sounds outrageous, but the feeling behind it is not. Most of us are unlikely to reach for black magic when a friend gets something we want, but insecurity can make people behave rather badly.

The play also does not make it particularly easy to decide who is right. Bedah, Zeina and Aida can all be kind, selfish, funny, stubborn and incredibly frustrating. I found myself siding with one of them, only for her to do something a few minutes later that made me change my mind.

And if you have had a close friendship for long enough, you probably know exactly what I mean.

Munah brings an infectious energy to Zeina that makes her passion convincing, even when it becomes exasperating. Siti Hajar gives Bedah a quieter strength, making her more vulnerable moments stand out. Siti Khalijah has perhaps the biggest transformation as Aida moves through different stages of her life, changing not only in appearance but in the way she carries herself.

The production itself is relatively simple, with Elizabeth Mak’s set using a few pieces of furniture to suggest different homes, while the costumes help distinguish the three women through their respective colours. The years pass without making a big fuss about it. We simply meet them again and realise something has shifted.

And that is what stayed with me.

Friendships do not always end with one enormous betrayal. Sometimes it is a collection of smaller things. One person gets too busy. Another becomes resentful. Someone says something that cannot be taken back. Someone else keeps quiet when she should have spoken.

Eventually, the friendship that once seemed unshakeable starts to feel like work.

Watching these three women made me think about my own friendships, particularly the ones that have survived long enough to accumulate their own history. The people who know the embarrassing stories, the bad decisions and the versions of us we would rather forget. They are also the people who know exactly what to say when they want to hurt us.

The final scenes are particularly affecting because we see the women before all of this happened. Before the jealousy, arguments and disappointments. They are simply friends, laughing, talking about the future and having no idea what is coming.

I found myself wishing they could stay there.

3 Queens is not a story about perfect friendships. Thank goodness for that. It is about three women who love each other, irritate each other, misunderstand each other and sometimes hurt each other badly.

And when I walked out of the theatre, I found myself thinking about the people I have known for years and wondering how many friendships quietly change while we are busy living our own lives.

Sometimes we do not lose people because we stop loving them. We simply become so caught up in our own story that we forget they are still part of it.

3 Queens runs from 3 to 13 September 2026 at The Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre, Wild Rice @ Funan. Tickets are available from BookMyShow.

Production Credits

• Written by Haresh Sharma
• Directed by Haresh Sharma and Adib Kosnan
• Performed by Munah Bagharib, Siti Hajar Gani and Siti Khalijah Zainal
• Lighting Designer: Emanorwatty Saleh
• Set Designer: Elizabeth Mak
• Sound Designer: Safuan Johari
• Translator: Zulfadli Rashid