FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

Sleeping on the street

Sleeping on  the street

Democrazy studio opens 2016 with an interactive stage performance on the homeless

Peerapol Kijreunpiromsuk, now a core member of Democrazy Studio, has delighted theatre audiences in recent months with his acting prowess and charisma in such memorable works as “Girl X” and “I Am Thai”, both staged by Thanapol Virulhakul. He’s now ready to make his professional directing debut with an interactive performance “Plan B”. He’s not new to directing though: his graduation project, almost five years ago, was Kafka’s “Metamorphosis.” 
“Girl X” and “I Am Thai” allowed him to spend a long time last year in both Japan and Germany where he found himself taking a lot of photos.
“When I looked at the photos, I realised many of them showed homeless people. It’s a habit, I guess, as I have also returned from holidays in Austria, India and Nepal with much the same shots,” Peerapol says.
“Looking more closely at this habit, I realised that because I tend to travel alone, I often don’t know where to stay and what to eat. Does that make me sound like a homeless person?
“To better understand the situation of homeless people in Thailand, I visited the Mirror Foundation and Just Society Network. I also observed the homeless as they received free food from charities.
“My research showed me how easy it was for a Thai person to become homeless. That’s due, I think, to the lack of any system in our social structure to tackle this problem. In fact in Thailand, it’s never been regarded as a social problem, but as an individual failure. In some countries, they take much better care of this problem – for example, a homeless person is entitled to certain welfare benefits because after all he is still a citizen with rights.” 
In his interactive work, Peerapol attempts to explore who in the audience has the potential to become homeless. The title, he explains, queries whether if we fail to meet our goals, we have a Plan B to fall back on.
“The homeless people’s Plan B may be to become homeless, as there is nothing in place to bring them back into the system.”
Peerapol picked young actor and director Kwin Bichitkul as his solo performer even before he had a definite idea of how the performance would turn out and that’s because “he’s very well trained. That became evident when I watched him in previous works.
“He’s also a free-spirited unique individual who leads his life like an artist. From my research, that’s a profession that is prone to homelessness.”
 
MAKE PLANS
- “Plan B” is at Democrazy Studio on Soi Saphanku, a five-minute walk along Rama IV Road from MRT Lumpini, exit 1. Shows are at 8pm from tomorrow to Saturday and January 26 to 30.
- Tickets are Bt480. For details, call (081) 441 5718 or check Facebook.com/DemocrazyStudio. 
  
 
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