Pedal to the 'Vetal'

WHEN THE CULTURE Ministry announced that Patravadi “Khru Lek” Mejudhon was the latest National Artist in performing arts, just about everyone in the theatre, television and film business was quick to extend their congratulations for this long overdue recognition.

“I kept telling my students not to nominate me. Many artists of my generation passed away shortly after they became National Artists. Now I wonder if it’s a curse and my time is up. No way! I still have a lot of work to do,” Khru Lek says laughingly, sounding surprisingly relaxed after a long day teaching English, Thai literature and Buddhism.

Khru Lek, 67, has done a lot already and she’s not stopping. The playwright, director and actress is putting the final touches to her latest production, “Vetal” by the Patravadi High School, which opens this Saturday at Vic Hua Hin.

I’m not old enough to have witnessed how she revolutionised TV dramas by taking out the prompters. Nor did I see her films or stage works at Monthienthong Theatre, all of which won her critical acclaim and popular success. However, I am old enough to have sat glued to her television work for Nite Spot Productions in the ’80s including the “Bon Thanon Sai Diao Kan” series, which was very different from what was showing on TV at the time. 

When Patravadi Theatre opened in the 1990s, it became more than a performance venue. Thanks to her vision, it morphed into a school, a studio, a residence for visiting artists as well as a library, a cafe and restaurant, all along the lively Bangkok riverside.

Since she moved to Vic Hua Hin at the beginning of this decade, my visits have been so frequent that I no longer notice the two-and-a-half hour drive.

On my first visit to Lyon’s Biennale de la danse in 2000, I watched Khru Lek’s “Ramayana: Sahasadecha Episode”, a show very different from those staged at the National Theatre in Bangkok and the only Thai representative at one of the world’s most important dance festivals. 

And when the “Images of Asia” festival in Denmark put up a photograph of her wearing a bright blue wig on their poster, Khru Lek made many people rethink their notions of contemporary Asia.

In short, her contributions to the development of Thai performing arts are so immense that one can’t help wondering why it took so long for the Ministry’s committee to realise it. 

When the Thailand Centre of the International Association of Theatre Critics honoured Khru Lek with the lifetime achievement award at their inaugural Thailand Awards two years ago, honorary president Kittisak Suwannapokin began his speech with the words, “Actually, I’ve been preparing this speech for another award.”

Perhaps part of the reason lay in the spirit of experimentation that’s evident in all her works, especially in her fusion of performing arts forms and contents from different eras and countries in her productions, which are always entertaining as well as thought provoking. These artistic risks, worth taking and well taken, might have delayed this honour. 

When I talk to foreign theatre scholars, I always refer to Khru Lek as the Thai counterpart of such theatre grandes dames as France’s Ariane Mnouchkine and America’s Ellen Stewart. No one has ever argued the point. 

Khru Lek’s Hong Kong counterpart Danny Yung, who has worked with her on many projects including an intercultural production “Book of Ghosts” at the 2009 edition Hong Kong Arts Festival, explains why she deserves this honour.

 “Asia’s most remarkable lady in the arts is always on the move, on the creative front and on visions for the future. She brings true leadership to the Thai cultural field and produces the best perfume in town – the Bangkok cultural brand. She’s my dearest friend.”

Pichet Klunchun, whose internationally acclaimed work “Pichet Klunchun and Myself” premiered at her Fringe Festival 2004 and whose contemporary works bridge the traditional with the modern along the same path paved by Khru Lek, notes, “It’s fitting and indeed long overdue. I’m both happy and surprised because many deem her works as contemporary and so she’s not entitled for national artist honours. That’s totally irrelevant. She’s a true pioneer, for example, in bringing foreign artists to teach us contact improvisation and butoh techniques.”

And that pioneering touch will once again be evident in the upcoming “Vetal”.

“This is our school’s annual project. It got underway last June when the school started this academic year and we’ve been working on it every Monday, continuing on from our productions of ‘Viva Phra Samut’ and ‘Rocking Rama’ in the past two years. The students are studying this Thai literature in their classes so this is a good opportunity to make sure they not only read but also enjoy them. Apart from performing, the students have been learning different skills from professional Thai and foreign artists – for example, they’re making all the costumes, operating the sound and lighting equipment, taking all the production photos and applying their computer graphics skills in designing the poster. It’s a complete educational process.”

Khru Lek picked four tales out of the 25 in late Thai literature professor Saksri Yamnadda’s translation of Sanskrit literature “Vetala Panchavimshati”, in which King Vikrama tries to capture the mythical spirit responsible for recounting many tales that all end with a riddle.

One of the lessons her young students have learned from working on “Vetal” – and she hopes the audiences will too – is that silence is golden.

Khru Lek will also be on stage, manipulating the Vetal puppet and voicing the character.

“The original plan was for me to voice it from the control board in the back of the audience, but it’s so far away I couldn’t see the puppet. Also, I want to be in the middle of the action and, for some reason, the backstage area is tidier and the young performers more disciplined now that I’m sharing the stage with them.”

Khru Lek has no plan to retire soon, at least from teaching, now that her five-year-old high school has expanded to elementary level.

“Next year, the school will work on a stage production of a foreign work, after having worked on Thai literature adaptation for three consecutive years. I’m training some teachers as a new generation of directors and production team members so I can focus fully on teaching,” she says.

And that’s clearly why most of us, whether we have studied with her or not, always refer to her as “Khru Lek”. 

 

SUNNY HUA HIN

“Vetal” premieres on Saturday and runs on weekends until March 15 at the Vic Hua Hin, across the street from the Vana Nava water park.

It’s in Thai and English. Shows are at 7pm on Saturday and 2pm on Sunday. Tickets cost Bt400 (students Bt200). 

Call (032) 827 814-5 and (089) 255 0002 or check www.VicHuaHin.com or www.Facebook.com/patravadiface.