Stop popping pills

With support from the UK’s Wellcome Trust, B-Floor Theatre and Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research staged the physical theatre performance “Survival Games” in early 2013. They’ve now resumed their co-operation and are targeting younger audiences with the puppet theatre “Fishy Clouds”.
This new work, focusing on antimicrobial resistance and the ethics of research with children, has been presented at schools in Bang Bua Thong and Prawet districts, in addition to the Thai Health Promotion Foundation office, Ramathibodi Hospital and Thammasat University. I watched it at Democrazy Theatre Studio on the last weekend of November and last Wednesday it opened the Joint International Tropical Medicine Meeting (JITMM).
And like “Survival Games”, medical science and performing arts found a rare happy meeting ground here.
Award-winning young playwright Pattareeya Puapongsakorn’s script for this 45-minute non-verbal performance was easy to understand and straight to the point – and the accompanying leaflet made sure that the audience could share this important information with others as well. 
We saw puppet characters of a father who gave antibiotics to his son, Lek who planted his vegetables with antibiotics, Ying Muang who fed her fish with antibiotics and Don who simply enjoyed taking antibiotics. Later on, Mek the cloud appeared and spread antimicrobial resistance to all who sought help from a doctor who could only treat them when he conducted some research, also on children, in order to fight with certain germs. There’s also an audience participation part in which we’re asked whether we would allow research to be conducted on children in order to make sure that new medicines worked. In the end, all members of the audience learned an important lesson: we shouldn’t just pop an antibiotic pill when we get sick but always consult a doctor.
James Laver’s production design ensured the set could be set up and dismantled in a few hours and that the props were easily transportable. Sirikarn Bunjongtad’s puppets clearly differentiated characters. Director Teerawat Mulvilai, who isn’t known for staging puppet theatre, managed to tell a story that was both entertaining and delivered its messages and his ensemble of puppeteers and actors were delightful and vibrant. But it was composer and musician Maneerut Singhanart who stole the show with a wide variety of sound effects and melodies she created live for the performance. 
A minor letdown for adult audiences might be that, unlike watching some Pixar animation films or more sophisticated puppet theatre shows, we get exactly the same messages as our kids, and exactly as written in the leaflet. 
It’s also worth noting that even though we rarely see the words B-Floor and puppet theatre in the same sentence, “Fishy Clouds” and “The Adventure of Yoo Dee”, recently seen at Bangkok’s 1st International Children’s Theatre Festival (BICTfest), are proof that diversity is why they’re one of the most prolific groups here – and more than capable of going beyond their usual tag of politically oriented physical theatre company.

“CLOUDS” AND MORE
- “Fishy Clouds” continues in Mae Sot district, Tak province – today at Wattana Village Resort, tomorrow at Shoklo Malaria Research Unit (SMRU) in Wang Pha, and Wednesday at SMRU in Maw Ker Tai. Free admission. For specific showtimes, email [email protected] or [email protected].
- As part of Bangkok Art and Culture Centre’s (BACC) 5th Performative Art Festival, B-Floor is joining with Japan Foundation and Butoh Co-op Thailand in organising “The 11th International Butoh Festival Thailand 2016: Evolution/Revolution”, with workshops, performances and a symposium, at BACC’s 4th floor studio tomorrow and Friday to Sunday.
- Visit Facebook.com/ BFloor.Theatre.Group