THE POIGNANCY OF POLITICS

Back from a trip to New York City where they performed two works and attended workshops, B-Floor Theatre, now in their 13th season, continue to be prolific. As part of the Diverse Arts Festival at the Pridi Banomyong Institute, where they are one of the resident theatre troupes, they restaged the solo performance “Bang Lamerd” on September 30, as well as the physical theatre piece “The Other Land”, which premiered at the same festival four years ago. Both came with English surtitles and the expats in the audience enjoyed them as much as the Thais.
In the B-Floor Room where “Bang Lamerd” was staged, spectators’ chairs were sporadically arranged under razor blades hanging on threads from the ceiling. In the first scene, Ornanong “Golf” Thaisriwong shared with the audience her idea of using the royal anthem in the performance – only to be censored by her producer. She also self-censored the idea after consulting with her lawyer friend.
“I’m running a cafeteria with my boyfriend and it’d be impossible for him to take care of it by himself,” she said. “Plus, I need to have my knee operated soon.”
The audience was always part of the performance – physically and mentally. For example, she put pieces of circled red paper on different parts of our bodies and in a subsequent scene asked us to find a partner and practise three styles of Thai smiles.
The whole experience reminded me of “Siam Mission: The Musical”, where the political views were the complete opposite. “Bang Lamerd” was much more engaging and thought-provoking because the artist didn’t try to stuff too many messages into her work but instead left space and time for us to think, to question, to agree as well as to disagree – the way contemporary performances do. If a producer were to put them together in a double-bill, it would show how Thailand is a uniquely democratic country and how opposing political views are being voiced through contemporary theatre – no matter how limited the audience may be.
In his equally commendable restaging of “The Other Land” (“Phaendin Uen”), Teerawat “Kage” Mulwilai was inspired by the late writer Kanokpong Songsomphan, who won the SEA Write Award for this collection of short stories in 1996. Reflecting how contemporary Thai society has been afflicted with more cultural, political and religious conflicts than we have perhaps realised, Kage adapted four short stories and masterfully blended them with his own two tales.
The performance made me think back to the “Three Smiles” scene in “Bang Lamerd” and the headlines in tabloid newspapers that highlight the violence in southern Thailand – perhaps so often that many of us are now accustomed to it. Our country, just like our world, is becoming more multi-faceted and has more differences than ever. We cannot simply smile through them. We need to clearly understand and whole-heartedly recognise these differences and make sure that we don’t turn them into even more conflicts.
Similar to the way it was staged four years ago, this is an ensemble piece that’s marked with strong unity and high energy and features 10 actors. None are permanent members of B-Floor but many joined the B-Fest workshop and performed in Jaa Phantachat’s “Lear and His Three Daughters” earlier this year, and I’m sure some will soon become an integral part of B-Floor. For now, though, their physical movements still lacked the finesse of more veteran B-Floor members and their acting styles varied a great deal - particularly evident in the scenes with spoken dialogue, like that of a behind-the-scenes of a film production of “Nak Phaendin” (“Waste of Land”).
Also praiseworthy was Pavinee Samakkabutr’s lighting design, which turned a bare performance space set in arena stage configuration into a battlefield of conflicts. It’s simple but never mundane.
  THIS LAND
- “The Other Land” continues from tomorrow until Sunday at 8pm at the Pridi Banomyong Institute on Thonglor. It’s in Thai with English surtitles.
- Tickets are Bt400 at www.bfloorTheatre.com. Call (089) 167 4039.
- For more on on the “Diverse Arts Festival”, check out the “Pridi Banomyong” page on Facebook.