Three men and plenty of Boxes

THAI DIRECTOR Adjjima Na Patalung has been splitting her time between London and Bangkok for several years. In 2009, she staged a memorable Thai version of British playwright Dennis Kelley's “Love and Money” at Democrazy Theatre Studio. In 2012, her translation of Eugene Ionesco’s “The Chairs” at the same venue won the IATC Thailand’s best play, actor and actress awards. Now back at Democrazy again, her latest stage work “Boxes” is not a translation, but a totally new work she conceived with her cast and crew.
“I met James Laver [last seen on stage in ‘The Never Ending Loneliness for Two’] at the devised theatre workshop organised by Arts on Location and Pig Iron’s Quinn Bauriedel, last year. During the workshop, we had a chance to work together in a group. We were told to pick a theme from three choices to work with –‘beginning’, ‘middle’ and ‘end’ – and we selected ‘middle’,” she says.
“With another participant, we created a performance triptych, which dealt with the issue of time and duration. It was an interesting process and we enjoyed the collaboration so much that we decided then that when the opportunity arose, we would continue to develop the work together. That came when Democrazy invited me to stage a performance.”
Initially, “Boxes” was planned as a solo performance featuring only Laver with Surachai Petsangrot invited to collaborate as stage designer.
“But when we started the research and development process, exploring different ways to work with boxes, it quickly became obvious that we needed stagehands to help create and transform the scenes,” she explains.
“These are not stagehands in the traditional sense; they also exist in the story as the Man's obstacles and manipulate him and the world he inhabits in various ways. I asked Surachai and B-Floor Theatre’s Sarut Komalittipong to perform these tasks.”
Since the work became a three-hander, the creation, Adjjima says, has been more collaborative.
“I asked the three performers to improvise from different set-up games and tasks. These were pre-planned and engineered with the aim of generating materials fit for the show. During this process, many materials for set design were also created, and the show itself was pieced together by visual narratives and movement sequences. I realised then that we needed a choreographer to help shape their physical movement.”
Thanapol Virulhakul, who recently staged the critically acclaimed “Hipster the King”, came on board last month and, Adjjima says, “We also made many design decisions, especially for the boxes we’re going to use – for example, the quantity and how we could use and handle them to support the performance. The focus during this period is the details and the dramaturgy of the performance.”
In the end, what the audience will witness this weekend is “a different way of looking at the human condition in the contemporary world using boxes as objects to narrate the story.”
“‘Boxes’ is a highly visual, movement-based performance that tells the story of a man and his quest for life’s meaning. ‘Boxes’ raises questions about human desire and freedom of choice as we follow the man’s journey, witnessing what he encounters in-between, that is between the start and the finish.”
This “in-between” is, in Adjjima’s words, “particular”.
“During the creation process, we discussed the concept endlessly. A colleague talked about being trapped in a situation in which he didn’t want to be in, like a job he didn’t enjoy. So, ‘being trapped in-between’ reflects the condition of our time, life in cities where box-shaped high-rise buildings dominate our perspectives and how we feel ‘boxed in’ by different layers of structure within the society, like a system that organises, regulates and puts things in places and order.
“We find cardboard boxes best represent this idea, as they are products of the modern world, the same way people are those of the society. Like humans, boxes have their lives and can wither away.”
 WHAT’S IN
THE BOX?
- “Boxes” runs from Saturday to September 29 at Democrazy Theatre Studio on Soi Saphan Khu, Rama IV Road (MRT: Lumphini, Exit 1). Shows are at 8 nightly.
- Tickets are Bt450 (Bt400 in advance). Call (081) 441 5718 or check Facebook.com/DemocrazyStudio.