Baby, one more time

A THEATRE troupe who lasts more than 10 years in this country is rare and when it’s a troupe of mime artists, not a widely popular genre of performing arts here, it’s worth even more of our attention.
Performing together since 2000 and under this name since 2005, Babymime is a trio of mime artists – Ratchai “Nging” Rujiwipatna, Nuttapol “Ta” Kummata, and Thong-glur “Glur” Thongta – who can, deservingly, call themselves professional. With frequent gigs on stage and screen both here and overseas, they, unlike many of their theatre colleagues here, can afford not to have a day job.
Last year, Glur needed a major brain operation and Babymime fans and fellow theatre artists organised a fund-raising performance to support him. That jeopardised the future of the troupe, which performed in 10 countries in 2016 following their first European trip to Edinburgh Fringe in 2015.

The good news is that last weekend they returned to the stage at the Playhouse of K-Bank Siam Pic-Ganesha Center of Performing Arts, and Glur said, to the delight of his fans, “I’m 80 per cent normal despite a few extra kilogrammes.”
Instead of the usual annual performance titled “Babymime Show”, followed by the number of its “Volume”, this year it’s the “Babymime Superhit Show”, comprising three of favourite and critically acclaimed works in their repertoire. Each of them is preceded by Glur’s “Title Man” for which he came up with different ways to introduce the title of the three main acts.
In “Fan”, which premiered in Indonesia last year, Ta portrayed our summer’s most significant electrical appliance and Nging’s actions, hilariously and cheekily, reminded us of what we’ve done with it. The two were also back in “Chicken Run”, which premiered nine years ago, in which a chicken puppet, manipulated by Nging, was trying every possible way to avoid chicken rice vendor Ta’s attempt to butcher it.
The highlight of this 90-minute show was “Star Wars”, from “Babymime Show Volume 5” in 2012 on which they collaborated with B-Floor’s Teerawat “Ka-ge” Mulvilai. I was as entertained and moved by this act as I was five years ago. Keenly written, directed and performed, it tells the story of a moody father (Glur), a submissive mother (Nging) and an autistic child (Ta) and turns it ingeniously into a Star Wars spoof.

Along with a Taiwanese official from their culture ministry and a Singapore-based American director, I went to a Sunday afternoon performance and families with young kids formed the majority of audience. As always, the troupe frequently walked off stage and into the stand of audience to interact with us, and kids were invited onstage to perform with them as well.
It was a timely reminder that Babymime’s works can be enjoyed by audiences of all ages, especially in this era of information overload on social media, when we all need this silent act of comedy to exercise our imagination.
After the curtain call, the trio announced their upcoming 12-province national tour with this “best of” show, thanks in part to a major sponsor.
I’m sure that their experience in many provinces will inspire them to create new works to delight and to inspire us soon.
On their next overseas trips, they will also see that the art of performing “mime” has rapidly developed to integrate with other genres of performing arts – for example, nouveau cirque and object theatre – and no doubt they will consider developing their future works accordingly as well.
The experience last weekend also reminded me of a recent conversation I had with a Thai cultural attache I met at a theatre festival overseas. While many contemporary Thai dance and theatre troupes, Babymime included, are now performing overseas, this information is not known by either our culture or foreign affairs ministries who, unlike their colleagues in other countries, only look to promote traditional Thai performing arts to overseas audiences. Of course, the art of pantomime is not originally Thai, but Babymime, like many of contemporary Thai performing artists, has adapted it to fit contemporary Thai stories and audiences.
So how can Babymime’s performances not be regarded as Thai?

Five More Shows Here

- “Babymime Superhot Show” continues at the Playhouse, |K-Bank Siam Pic-Ganesha Center of Performing Arts, 6th floor or Siam Square One |(BTS: Siam Square), today at 8pm, and tomorrow and Sunday at 1.30pm and 7.30pm. Tickets cost from Bt400 to Bt800 at ThaiTicketMajor.

- For more details, search “Babymime Show” on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.