Suwandee turns to Shakespeare

After a three-year hiatus, the Office of Contemporary Arts and Culture’s Silpathorn Awards are back. Among the seven artists in seven genres of contemporary arts who were honoured yesterday afternoon at the Ratchdamnoen Contemporary Art Centre was Thailand’s most prolific stage director Suwandee Jakravoravudh. Now 55 years old – the maximum age for Silpathorn eligibility – this national recognition of her is long overdue.
In our phone interview, she laughs, humbly as always, saying “I’m very surprised: I’ve never thought the works I’ve been doing were eligible for this award. I’m a professional stage director and I make a living from theatre, 
 which one may deem ‘commercial’, as well as other related works. My works are for the masses; the sponsors [for our stage productions] don’t think so, though –’They’re too niche’, they say.”
A graduate of Thammasat University’s Drama Department, Suwandee started her career working for stage productions by Theatre 28 and Monthienthong Theatre as well as freelancing in TV and film. Her costume design for the 1986 film “Chang Man Chan Mai Care” won the equivalent of an Oscar – a Suphannahong Award. Shortly after, she co-founded the professional theatre company Dass Entertainment, now known as Dreambox. One “S” from the company’s name was taken from her initial, the “DA” from her Chulalongkorn University colleague Daraka Wongsiri, Thailand’s most prolific playwright, all of whose works have been staged by Suwandee. Some middle-aged, and older, theatregoers, myself included, may still remember her directorial debut, the heartfelt musical “Mon Phleng Khanom Khrok”, at the now defunct MBK Hall. In 1993, the company took up residence at Bangkok Playhouse, now known as M Theatre, and ever since the audience has been enjoying comedies, dramas as well as musicals, both originals written by Daraka, and translations and adaptations, there. This is in addition to a few productions of son et lumiere shows like “The River of Kings”, “Phra Mahachanok the Phenomenal Live Show” and Bangkok’s latest tourist show “Himmapan Avatar”.

Looking back, she says: “I think our [Dass Entertainment’s and Dreambox’s] works have solidly proved that one can have a professional career in theatre. We can make a decent living from it. When we started Dass, many of our theatre classmates were working for other media and only found time to work on theatre productions from time to time. We’re the opposite. I think that as a result of this, others have followed our paths with more confidence.” 
Suwandee giggles: “But of course, if you want to get rich, you should consider investing in the stock market.” 
The veteran director says time management is one of the greatest obstacles in her career, explaining: “It takes a great deal of time to work on a theatre production and we’re working with professional actors, who always need to juggle their time between television, film, and stage works. And as the latter pays the least, we need to agree on this crucial condition. That said, what’s good about this condition is that we always get to work with actors who’re willing [to sacrifice their time and income from other gigs in order] to work with us and develop [their stage acting skills] along with us. In the early years [of Dass Entertainment], we came up with our choice of plays and looked for actors; later on, we had a pool of actors with whom we could work [even though our company doesn’t have an acting ensemble] and then found works that would not only fit but also challenge them and us [the creative team]. In recent years, though, as the traffic problem has become worse, we have less time while we need to keep our standards, or even better ourselves in every new work. Each work has different problems – difficulty of the script, for example – so we need to efficiently plan our rehearsal process and tackle them accordingly.” 
As for the theatre audience, she opines: “I think they’re also growing [old] along with us. When we first started Dass almost three decades ago before we had our own venue, we  were mainly targeting those who had just graduated and started working and might not be able to afford a ticket to a play at Monthienthong Theatre. And so our tickets for a full-scale professional theatre production back then were more than five times less. Our best sellers have always been comedies [like ‘Thuen Thuek’] and yet we have tried to keep diversity in our programming – we want to prove that an entertaining play isn’t restricted to comedy. That’s why we also stage dramas [for example, ‘Kulap si lueat’], detective stories [‘Go Back for Murder’] and family plays [‘Rai saen suk’]. We’re trying to expand our target group as widely as possible but of course not every genre is everyone’s cup of tea.”
With more than 60 stage works to her credit, it’s quite a surprise that Suwandee has yet to stage a Shakespearean play. That’s about to change this weekend with her production of “Twelfth Night, or What You Will”.

Suwandee, who once performed in a Shakespearean play, explains: “Given their literary values, I think most Thai theatre audiences think that Shakespearean plays are too difficult for them to enjoy. Many years ago, Daraka and I were discussing the possibility of staging King Rama VI’s translation of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ but after considering the fact that our actors might not be able to handle it, we rejected the idea. Then we read ‘Twelfth Night’ and found that it’s very relevant to Thai people and also that it’s very funny. I also recall having a great time watching Nopamat Veohong’s production of it in 1988 at Chulalongkorn University.”
“For this production, which has been postponed from last year when the world was celebrating Shakespeare 400, we’re using the newly translated script by Daraka who, while strictly following the original, also needed to substitute some figures of speech to make sure they communicate with the Thai audience.”
The cast mostly comprises professional actors who’ve worked with Dass and Dreambox, and Suwandee notes, “All of them have seasoned experience in spoken plays, the demands of which are very different from musicals which we’ve been producing in recent years [like ‘Madam White Snake’ and ‘Mom’], and they’re having fun tackling this new acting challenge.”
And while Shakespearean productions in other countries are having fun setting them in different periods, the costume and set designs of Dreambox’s “Twelfth Night” look like the kind of Shakespearean play with which we’re familiar. 
“I don’t think the audience here has seen many Shakespearean productions yet and so we figured it would be more interesting to keep the Elizabethan look, which is like a foreign likay and funny at the same time.”
  BETTER A WITTY FOOL THAN A FOOLISH WIT

•   Dreambox’s “Twelfth Night” is at M Theatre, on New Phetchaburi Road between Thong Lor and Ekamai, this Saturday and Sunday in addition to September 16-17 and 23-24. 
•  Showtime is Saturday at 2pm and 7.30pm and Sunday at 2pm only. It’s in Thai with no translation. 
•  Tickets cost Bt1,300 and Bt1,500 at (085) 416 6661-4. 
•  Find out more at www.DreamboxTheatreBkk.com.