Listen, do you want to know a secret?
Dujdao Vadhanapakorn restructures her experiential performance for a theatre setting
B-Floor Theatre has been very prolific these past two months. One day after Teerawat “Ka-ge” Mulvilai’s’s “Iceberg: The Invisible” finished its run at Democrazy Theatre Studio, Sarut Komalittipong and Sasapin Siriwanij’s “WW101” started at the group’s home studio B-Floor Room and will finish tonight.
This Wednesday, Dujdao Vadhanapakorn’s “Secret Keeper” will commence at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC)’s fourth floor studio, as part of the fourth annual Performative Art Festival.
Invited to create a new work for the soft launch of Thong Lor Art Space last year, Dujdao turned an empty room into a safe space where an individual shared his secrets with a stranger. Later last year, she recreated the work for the Wonderfruit Festival, this time with six well-trained “secret keepers”.
“After all our rehearsals, we thought we were ready to handle all kinds of festival goers, many of whom had revelled too much. Then some of the people working at the festival, soldiers among them, came to our booth and what they shared with us was totally unpredictable and in contrast to the secrets of the revellers. I would like to thank them very much,” says Dujdao, who is Thailand’s first certified dance movement therapist.
“This time we’ll be in a theatre setting so we don’t need so many ‘secret keepers’. It’s a new work, aesthetically speaking. The new version has more performative elements along with more physical movements and even dance,” Dujdao says of the changes she has made.
“Only one performer was in the last version, and that was [contemporary dancer] Vidura Amranand. In all three versions, the main structure of the performance with the two types of audience – those who actually go into the rooms and share their secrets and others who observe from outside but may not get to see and hear everything that’s happening in the rooms – is always the same.”
“These primary and secondary audiences, as I’d like to call them respectively, pay the same ticket price, though. So, the choice is theirs,” she laughs.
“The theatre setting allow the physical movements and dance to better express the internal condition. And so the secondary audience can experience these physical movements and dance and thus get closer and closer to what’s happening in the rooms.
“I’ve also cut many elements in the previous one-on-one encounter versions because this is more public than before and the emotional security of both the performers and the audience is of utmost important for me. Also, the performance is not entirely improvisational. Four of us have co-created this work and shared our secrets but we need to draw the line where we think it’s appropriate to share with the public.”
Joining Dujdao and Vidura are contemporary dancer Navinda Pachimsawat Vadtanakovint and theatre artist Amornsri Pattanasitdanggul, who’s returning to the stage after years of hiatus in yoga.
TWO TO SEE
The last performance of “WW101” is tonight in the B-Floor Room at the Pridi Banomyong Institute on Thong Lor. Tickets are Bt450.
“Secret Keeper” runs from Wednesday to August 23 at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. Shows are at 8 nightly except Monday and Tuesday. Tickets are Bt600 (Bt450 for students).
For more details, call 089 167 4039, e-mail BFloorTheatre.gmail.com or check Facebook.com/|BFloor.Theatre.Group.
