New space, crisper performance

The latest scandal involving misbehaving Buddhist monks brought to mind a few of the scenes in Pichet Klunchun’s “Culture and Fact” staged at his home studio, Chang Theatre in Thung Khru, Thon Buri.
At the beginning of the solo performance, the audience is shown video excerpts of a group of monks having fun, even admitting on record that they were enjoying “a vacation” in the Netherlands and Germany. Although the scenes are nothing like the Hollywood comedy “The Hangover”, just seeing them had an impact, with the audience asking themselves about the way we show our faith in Buddhism through its representatives.
Last Wednesday, when Pichet premiered the revival of the 70-minute performance with a new, and better title “Unwrapping Culture” at 100 Tonson Gallery, I was glad to see that these scenes had remained intact and that the spectators were immediately linking them to the current scandal.
Pichet doesn’t stop with his commentary on religion – that’s just an appetiser.
He then comments on one of his favourite targets – how classical Thai performing arts are being staged for contemporary audiences. My personal favourite moment here was when Pichet controlled the hand gestures of the Hello Kitty doll in front of him while the screen showed Benyakai from “Khon” at the Thailand Cultural Centre.
In-between these video excerpts, Pichet was busy with the props and lighting for the next scenes, a task he undertakes without any help from stagehands or lighting crew. In other words, he’s really solo. Before and after the performance, audience members are invited to look closely at the main performance space filled with small figurines and dolls with dinosaurs outnumbering the others.
While I would not call this installation art, it reveals the eclectic nature of the Thai people, as demonstrated by our worship of Hindu gods and the supernatural powers as well as all things Buddhist.
Unlike some of Pichet’s previous works, “Unwrapping Culture” is evidently aimed at local Thai and expat audiences here rather than designed for an international stage.
Pichet, it seems, is exercising his freedom of speech as a taxpayer, despite the fact that he ironically duct-tapes his mouth in a few scenes. In fact, he only speaks in one scene, a truly hilarious one, when he portrays a street vendor willing to sell the tourists anything from amulets to porn DVDs.
At the post-show Q&A, a foreign audience member asked if this performance had been censored by the government, Pichet replied that he was lucky because the government never knew anything about the arts.
Pichet is probably also aware that this medium can reach a very limited number of people at a time – making it so limited that the government might either not know of its existence or not care about its small impact.
That said, “Unwrapping Culture” shows that a dancer/choreographer doesn’t always have to dance in order to get his messages across – the realm of contemporary performance yields many possibilities and encourages experimentation. We need more of these showcases of ideas, rather than demonstrations of dance techniques, in our country.

DON’T WAIT UNTIL AUGUST
“Unwrapping Culture” is at the 100 Tonson Gallery on Soi Tonson (10-minute walk from BTS Chit Lom) at 7pm on Friday and 2pm on Saturday. Shows are also on July 5 and 6, July 12 to 14, August 16 and 17 and August 23 and 24.
Tickets are Bt1,500 (Bt800 for students). Calling (02) 684 1527 or e-mail [email protected]. For more details, visit www.PKLifeWork.com