Royal music, royal dreams

AFTER MAKING a splendid debut in 2014, the musical “Raak Fah Kap Saengdin” returns next Saturday and Sunday, significantly revamped and with many more royally composed tunes in another heartfelt tribute to His Majesty the late King Bhumibol.
Parichart Chanthai, director of the Ratchapa Music School of Voice and Style, which is presenting the show, explains that one of the school’s exams requires the students to perform a composition of their choosing by the late monarch. The more challenging the piece, the better their grading.
“I thought, ‘What else can we do with this apart from just singing the songs?’ And that was the origin of ‘Raak Fah Kap Saengdin’.”
The musical is based on the songs written by His Majesty, the wisdom he shared and the projects he initiated to help people. In its 2017 edition the show has more than 30 tunes woven into a story by Nimit Pipithkul, 2007 winner of the Silpathorn Award in performing arts.

“Most Thais are familiar with some of His Majesty’s 48 composition,” says Nimit, “but this year we’re presenting 30 that are rarely heard, such as ‘Can’t You Ever See’. Each song helps shape the sequence of events in the story in a kind of fantasy style.
“The most important subject we’re covering is agriculture, which was so important to the King. City people understand that agriculture is important too, but the language in these songs is far more beautiful and noble than you typically hear from farmers, and that’s why the musical takes the form of a fantasy.
“The show opens in a city, where the ‘raak fah’ connects the earth to the sky, gives people more power in their daily lives and helps the country develop. The ‘saengdin’ is the light in people’s hearts – the ‘people power’, in other words. But then one day the ‘raak fah’ disappears,” says Nimit, who’s also the show’s musical director and chairs the Semathai Marionette Arts for Social Foundation.

Nimit points out that farmer-craftspeople in Maha Sarakham made the stage backdrops and some of the costumes, using a traditional tie-dye technique.
The cast includes Winai Panthurak, Nanthana Boonlong, Panitnart Chatvilai, Thunyaluck “Ploysai AF12” Chokthanadej and the twin-sister pop duo Neko Jump – “Noey” Warattha and “Jam” Charattha Imraporn.
Seventy-year-old Winai, a long-ago member of the popular group the Impossibles, plays a village headman. “This is my first time in a stage play,” he says, “and it’s been quite challenging memorising the dialogue at my age!” Ploysai is a “veteran” of this particular musical, though – she’s reprising her role as Pun Fun.
The main auditorium at Kasetsert University is a fitting venue for the production, says Surasi Chanoksakul, a music lecturer at the school
“The auditorium is now 60 years old and the late King was here nine times. His first visit was in 1957, with Her Majesty the Queen, when they planted nine nonsri evergreen trees out front as a symbol of Kasetsert University’s long life. “Every November 29 the university holds a commemorative event whose name translates as ‘Nonsri the King Planted, Music the King Favoured’.”

WHERE SKY MEETS EARTH

- “Raak Fah Kap Saengdin” |will be performed at the main auditorium of Kasetsart University on February 4 and 5, each day at 2pm.
- Seats cost Bt500 to Bt2,500 and can be reserved at (02) 907 9199, (095) 910 1424 or (086) 351 7214.