A new home for 'Hom Rong'

A critically acclaimed movie in 2004, “Hom Rong” (“The Overture”) has been dusted off and reworked for the stage, opening next week as the first production for a brand new theatre in Bangkok.

“With a title like ‘The Overture’, the story is perfect to launch our new Kbank Siam Pic-Ganesha theatre,” says director Teravat Anuvatudom of Workpoint Entertainment’s affiliate Toh Klom Karn Lakorn.

Located on the seventh floor of Siam Square One on the former site of the Siam Theatre that burned down in 2010 – the Kbank Siam Pic-Ganesha Centre of Performing Arts features three auditoriums of different sizes, and Workpoint is hoping it will quickly become a venue of choice for producers looking for a place to showcase their work. The main theatre, which is home to “Hom Rong the Musical”, has 1,060 seats and is perfect for full-scale productions. The other halls, one 200-seat, the other a 40-seat “black box”, are ideal for smaller shows.

Unlike Scenario’s Rachadalai theatre, the Siam Pic-Ganesha is available for rent, thereby easing Bangkok’s perennial problem of studio space.

“It’s of benefit to us at Workpoint too, as we will be able to explore what works well and what doesn’t,” Teravat says.

“Hom Rong the Musical” stays true to the fictionalised account of esteemed Siamese classical musician Luang Pradit Phairoh, otherwise known as Sorn Silapabanleng, and the sort of lives such maestri led from the late 1890s to the 1940s.

Sorn was especially gifted at playing the xylophone-like ranad ek – despite his father’s prohibitive condemnation – and eventually went toe to toe and mallet to mallet with the champion of the instrument, Khun In.

The film’s director Ittisoontorn Vichailak based the story on Luang Pradit’s autobiography, switching back and forth between the life Sorn led as a young man and his later years.

“The film version is very good and so we have kept the theme,” Teravat says. “The young Sorn is facing an inner conflict as he is unsure what he wants out of life while the older Sorn is forced to confront change under Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram’s government accelerated modernisation of Thai society. As a result, performances of traditional Thai music, dance and theatre were frowned upon.

Thai traditional music never really recovered, he adds, and most of the best works, considered outdated symbols, were locked away in the Fine Arts Department.

“In the past, Thai music was very much part of daily life and it continued to flourish. When the modernisation policy was introduced, Thai music was prohibited with the result that it eventually faded from memory.”

Faded so much, in fact, that when the film came out in 2004, it was largely ignored by the movie-going public and only grew in popularity after positive reviews were posted on the Internet. Suddenly young people were all eager to learn Thai music. The trend soon died out, however, and the music sank back into oblivion.

“People always think that Thai traditional music is difficult to understand. In fact it’s not. Thai traditional music is fun; it’s not untouchable and unreachable. You don’t have to understand it to be entertained,” says the director, who admits that staging a musical is very different from making a film. 

“Movies have lot of tools to make people believe the story. You can use editing, close-ups shot and all kinds of techniques to tell the story. We don’t have those options for a musical,” he says.

Some 10 new songs have been written for the show, all of them the kind of modern numbers audiences have come to expect in musicals. There’s also classical music played by the small phipat orchestra. 

Teravat has brought in traditional musician Asadavuth Sagarit as music director. Sorn’s great-grandson, he also oversees the Luang Pradit Phairoh Foundation.

Acting coach Rossukon “Khru Ngoh” Kongkate is also on board and Teravat relies heavily on his services. “Just as in the movie, there’s plenty of tense drama in the musical, and I don’t have the knowledge to handle this aspect. Fortunately, Khru Ngoh can step in and take care of the acting part,” he says.

Casting an actor to play Sorn has also been a challenge as it required an individual who could act, sing and play the ranad-ek. Teravat and his team grew so frustrated with their quest to find the find man that they were ready to call it quits when Kornkan “Arm KPN” Sitthikoses turned up to audition and promptly landed the part. National Artist Sukprawat Pattamasutr, also a skilled ranad-ek player, takes over as the old Sorn.

A singer and actor who made his debut in KPN’s singing contest, Arm has worked as a news anchor for the Workpoint channel – he once tried to report the news by singing it – and has also appeared in “Reya the Musical” and Scenario's “Luad Kattiya.”

Trained on the ranad-ek while at primary school, he says he was keen to audition for the role. “After I heard about the project, I went back to playing for the first time in more than 10 years. Fortunately I hadn’t forgotten too much and quickly got back on track,” says the actor.

While Arm’s skills were far from those of a professional musician, Asadavuth felt he had the potential and now, after intensive daily training, he has improved sufficiently to be convincing in the role.

Arm says that for him the biggest challenge is playing live on stage during his duel with Khun In. Up until last week, that role was to have been filled by Chaiyuth, brother of real-life ranad virtuoso Narongrit Tosa-nga, who played him in the film, but Chaiyuth is apparently no longer involved. A new actor has yet to be named.

 

 NIGHT MUSIC