Different tales, esay access

THE BANGKOK THEATRE Festival may be done and dusted for another year but that’s no reason for the contemporary theatre scene to halt in its tracks.
Among the shows being staged is the latest in the first Bangkok Queer Theatre Festival, “Drunk”, by young playwright and director Panuwat Intawat. And I would stress the young, as Panuwat is still at university. On the plus side, it demonstrates that this festival offers a chance to students. On the minus side, rubbing shoulders with veterans in other productions in this festival can only draw comparisons.
Panuwat has fallen into the same trap as many of his young predecessors by choosing to direct his own play, instead of asking a more seasoned director to stage it. Such a collaborative move could have further improved the play in the way it communicates to the general public who might not understand him as well as his professors. With four interconnected story lines, the play is suspenseful, entertaining and never confusing. But by the end of it, many audiences feel exhausted as it deals with so many poignant issues – mostly touched upon but never fully explored – that one could be forgiven for thinking that this is the last play he’ll ever write. He has also chosen to work with young actors, some of whom haven’t even graduated. And although all do a decent job in portraying different characters, stronger performances and clear-cut multiple characterisation from seasoned actors would be welcome. With all the youthful energy and errors combined, many of the audience couldn’t help feeling that “Drunk” belonged to a university drama club rather than a professional theatre.
Eight BTS stations away at Thonglor Art Space, the actresses in “The Maid”– Pattarasuda Anuman Rajadhon and Dujdao Vadhanapakorn Boonyai – are two of the most highly revered stage actresses in this country. In their roles as Claire and Solange respectively they didn’t disappoint any member of the audience at the press preview on Tuesday night. This Thai production, which is translated from Jean Genet’s “Les Bonnes”, has one more character – Madame – who never appears on the stage. If this role-playing by maids as their mistress were a battle of acting prowess, Dujdao had a slight edge as she was as convincing as both the servant and the mistress. More credible as the mistress than the servant, Pattarasuda still looked and sounded like the seemingly uptight high school teacher we watched last month in Nophand Boonyai’s “The Cult of Monte Cristo.”
Big kudos are due to art director Nattaporn Thapparat and her team from Tito Tito Art and Idea Creative Consultancy whose set, costume and lighting designs for the traverse stage configuration were simple yet alluring. Director Napak Tricharoendej failed, as she did with her last production, “Picnic on the Battlefield”, to further adapt the play so that it communicated better with the Thai audience in 2014.
Besides, what didn’t quite come out in this production was Genet’s plea that attention be paid to “the ranks of the depressed” and the sadomasochistic relationship between the two maids, which here and now resulted in not so shocking onstage perverse sexuality.
 NEXT STATION
- Part of the Bangkok Queer Theatre Festival, “Drunk” runs until Sunday at Sun Dance Theatre at Silom Society on Silom Soi 2, near BTS Sala Daeng and MRT Silom. Shows are at 8pm.
- The next and last show will be “It Shall Pass”, a new solo work by award-winning veteran actor Wannasak “Kuck” Sirilar. It runs from Tuesday to December 14. Tickets are Bt600 (one drink included). Call (088) 018 5966 or visit Facebook.com/|SunDanceTheatre.
- “The Maids” opens tonight and runs until December 16 at Thonglor Art Space, 50 metres from BTS Thonglor. Shows are at 8pm with 2.30pm matinees on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are Bt550 (Bt450 for students in a group of six or more). Call (095) 542 4555 or (095) 924 4555 or visit Facebook.com/ThonglorArtSpace.
- Both shows are in Thai with English surtitles.