A laugh riot - with commercial breaks

ADAPTED FROM the popular collection of short stories “Vavoon” by Vachara Vaewuthinand under the penname Pinda Phosaya, who based them on campus life at Chulalongkorn University in the early 1980s, “Vavoon 2013” retains the nostalgic atmosphere while adding up-to-date gags. The question here is whether the creative team has managed to find the right balance.
Back in my teen years I was glued to the pages of “Vavoon” and “Klinsi Lae Kaopang”, which was about Silpakorn University art students. I was glad to hear that Vachara himself adapted “Vavoon” for the stage. The show’s programme reveals that he had the help of the young writers of TV Munk and his former classmate Watchara Parn-iem, now a TV director and the director of this adaptation.
Consequently, “Vavoon 2013” has a plot that’s too simple for theatre and too episodic, like a TV series. It’s wide open for jokes to be added just for the sake of laughter. It’s could run any length, but we’re rather lucky it’s only three hours.
The audience has a great laugh at the modern jokes, which are more sophisticated than those in the annual plays presented by Chula’s architecture students, especially in the second act, when they’re staging an adaptation of the popular novel “Ban Sai Thong”.
Nevertheless, we learn little about the life of architecture students in those days because specific details
 have been omitted, like the famous art-supply store Tong Iang and the song “Huai Oei” that liberal-arts students composed in response to the architecture students’ “Suai Oei”.
Plus, the set and costume designs contribute little to suggest the 1980s.
The cast includes “Academy Fantasia” heartthrobs who draw over-enthusiastic cheers and applause from their fans, but it does a fine job not only in portraying the characters but also delivering the jokes. I particularly enjoyed stage veteran Konthorn Taecholarn, whose comic timing is effortless. Vonthongchai Intarawat was far more immersed in his character and the story than others, who were too conscious of the audience. And Thunyasupan Jiraprechanont proved much more than a stage beauty, for the same reason as Vonthongchai.
Two signs show that JSL Global Media, notwithstanding the now annual jukebox-musical adaptation from the Suntharaphorn songbook, is not yet back on the theatre scene.
First, an usher was trying to stamp my hand with the same ink her colleague used for my car-park ticket. I watch three shows a week on average and I would get skin cancer if every theatre did this. Other producers know that a dissatisfied customer has every right to leave anytime and give his ticket to anyone else.
Second, and worse, the four main sponsors’ logos were, quite amateurishly, placed right next to the stage – and their names were also shamelessly put to the mouth of the characters, just like in many student productions. To protest this, I will not use any of these four products. Commercial theatre productions in many countries shun such marketing.
So another question is whether “Vavoon 2013” is truly a stage adaptation of “Vavoon” or simply another marketing event for “AF” singers.
 

KEEP ON LAUGHING
- “Vavoon 2013” continues at M Theatre on New Petchaburi Road until Sunday, tomorrow at 7.30 and Saturday and Sunday at 2. The dialogue is in Thai with no translation.
- Seats cost Bt1,000 to Bt2,500 (10 per cent off if you have a True Card, Smile Club Card or KrungSri card) at ThaiTicketMajor.
- Check out “Vavoon2013” on Facebook.