It’s all in your head

Arriving at Creative Industries, a small multi-purpose art space on the second floor of M-Theatre run by Sea Studio last Sunday afternoon, the audience was met with a delightful surprise. The script of “Chakrawan mi dao saen lan duang lae rao pen manut khon neung” (or in a much shorter and revealing English title “Universe Within”) by Panisa Puvapiromquan, who won Sodsai Award for playwriting in her college years and has been out of the limelight for many years, was already available for purchase at the box office. A staff member warned me, “Please don’t read it before watching the play,” and I replied with a grin, “Can I read it out loud while watching?

Floyd Mayweather Jr and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai stages in  “Universe Within” by director Dangkamon Na-Pombejra. Photo/Kochawan Chayawan

This reminded me that no Thai playwrights – no matter how prolific they are and how excellent their works – have been honoured with SEA Write awards, unlike their Southeast Asian counterparts from a few other countries. A reason, sad but true, given by the SEA Write committees is that not many Thai original plays have been published. Hopefully, this will soon change and thus the next SEA anthology of contemporary plays won’t include a Thai play in English that the Thai audience has not seen.
Another surprise soon followed: the audience was ushered in to sit on red chairs on the flat floor in front of the curtain and hanging bulbs were used as house lights. Many spectators were spotted trying to find seats on the front rows as sightline would obviously be a problem. After the pre-show announcement and the royal anthem, though, the curtain was opened and we were then led to the audience stand in another part of the space. Lighting and sound effects suggested a thunderous storm, and a woman, whose name the audience never finds out and played by playwright Panisa herself, entered through the rows of red chairs, to meet a man, performed by “Universe Within” director Dangkamon Na-Pombejra, who was meditating in what looked like a house tree. “Are you ‘Red Cliff’?” she asked.
As the title hinted, the rest of the play took place in the mind of writer whose pen name is Red Cliff and reveals how depression is a cause of his writer’s block. And while there was little dramatic action, the play was filled with so many smart and thought-provoking lines that the audience either smiled or laughed after thinking about them. 
Having worked on the Thai translation of the British interactive comedy on depression “Every Brilliant Thing”, on and off for the last year, I found it both refreshing and educational to witness a compelling psychological drama that explores what’s in the great, yet troubled mind, of a writer, as opposed to the British play’s focus on the people around them.
I personally love plays, or even musicals, with a small number of actors as I think it’s a good opportunity for each and every one of them to fully show their skills and talents. Two-handers, especially, are like boxing matches and the director has to make sure he or she casts two players of the same weight so that the spectators enjoy the bout from start to finish.
With Dangkamon and Panisa in the cast, this boxing match could be compared to one between, respectively, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai. Both were arresting and exciting to watch but one would never put them in the same ring. And while, visually, the latter’s striking red dress helped her steal some limelight from the former, who was in grey T-shirt and black pants, her voice was so soft at times, especially when the sound effects started to dominate, that I had to read the English surtitles from my seat in the second row to understand what she was saying even though the play was in Thai.

Floyd Mayweather Jr and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai stages in  “Universe Within” by director Dangkamon Na-Pombejra. Photo/Kochawan Chayawan

Perhaps performing in this play was, for her, treatment of writer’s block or depression. But had she sat and watched how her play and role were being interpreted by another professional actress, she would have had a chance to develop it further. The same could be said for Dangkamon, who could have cast another professional actor to perform this role and would have realised an audience member on the second row couldn’t hear his actress and that the play needed more variation in pace. Or, was this his self-treatment of depression as well?
Theatre is a collaborative art – the more, the messier and yet the merrier– and even though Peter Brook once directed and performed “Hamlet”, it was for the entertainment of his family. And with the playwright and director originating the two roles by themselves, the play also risks being labelled with the official original version stamp, meaning that other theatre artists might not want to stage it with any new interpretation.
DONE AND DUSTED
- “Universe Within” concluded its two-weekend run yesterday afternoon. To keep track of Panisa and Sea Studio, visit Facebook.com/SeaStudioThai.