FIVE years after she studied Singapore and Malaysian history in secondary school, the lessons finally came alive for student Lee Mayling.

And it happened in London.

The Singaporean acted in a play called Merdeka: The Rock Musical, which ran for three nights at London's Greenwood Theatre two weeks ago.

Lee, 20, a first-year law student at King's College London, played Mei, one of four characters acting out a tale of love, kinship and tragedy amid the political turmoil in Singapore and Malaysia in the 1960s.

The student production was staged by her university's Malaysian & Singaporean Society on a &pound1,500 (S$4,420) budget from the society's coffers.

Lee said: 'I remembered so many things about Singapore and Malaysia that I learnt about in social studies. The play brought it all back.

'But it is also a love story, so it will be relevant to everyone.'

The cast and crew of 40 included students from different universities in London, including Goldsmiths College and the London School of Economics. Singaporean Marcus Lim, 24, wrote, directed and acted in the play.

He was inspired to write Merdeka after witnessing a reunion of Singaporean and Malaysian members of a family at the Causeway four years ago, and started thinking about how the separation of Singapore and Malaysia in 1965 affected the citizens.

The English literature and film student at King's College played Mok, a mysterious ex-Communist Malaysian who strikes up a friendship with Seng, a Singaporean bicycle repairman.

Response to the play has been positive. The theatre was three-quarters full on the first night, and full on the second and third nights.

Lim said that about a third of the audience was non-Asian, an encouraging sign, as one of the objectives was to introduce South-east Asian history to a Western audience.

He said: 'Some of them came up to me after the show and said they didn't know there was such a convoluted history between Singapore and Malaysia. I think we've done our job.'

Both the Singapore and Malaysian high commissioners to Britain also saw the show.

Singapore High Commissioner Michael Teo said: 'I was particularly heartened by the fact that this was a Singapore-Malaysia collaboration.

'It demonstrates how our two countries are historically, culturally and emotionally linked and how enduring these ties are, even as the students are thousands of miles away from home.'