Critics get ‘Fundamental’

For the five consecutive years, the Thailand centre of the Internatcoiional Assation of Theatre Critics, the largest community of theatre critics with a history going back more than six decades, has held an event to honour the year’s best contemporary Thai dance and theatre works, notwithstanding decreasing financial support.
Last Tuesday, the day many of us returned to work following the Thai new year holiday, MCs Malys Choeysobhon and Alice Tsoi hosted “the IATC Thailand Dance and Theatre Review 2016” at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC). The event was well-attended, with more than 120 artists, journalists, students and performing arts lovers turning out to applaud the winners. Due to the Songkran break, the glass trophies were still in the factory – the award winners received certificates for now – and the book of reviews is in the computer, ready to be downloaded soon. Despite this, there was more interest from the mainstream media than before.

 A scene from “Fundamental”, whose director, B-Floor Theatre’s cofounder Teerawat “Kage” Mulvilai, saw it win three of the four awards for which it was nominated. Photo by Wipat Lertpureewong

A critics’ overview of contemporary Thai dance and theatre over the past year as well as current trends kicked off this small event. IATC Thailand’s honorary president Kittisak Suwanaphokin, “Season” magazine’s theatre critic, noted the greater connection between academia and the professional world, a good sign for the future. Vice president Amitha Amranand, who writes for the Bangkok Post, voiced concern about the rising number of works that had been inspired by or adapted from foreign works yet failed to duly credit them. Newest member, Khaosod English’s Kaewta Ketbungkan added that last year many theatre productions were marking the 40th anniversary of October 6, 1976. 
For my part, I noted that Thong Lor Art Space was now so prolific – with different programmes of dance, theatre, film and interdisciplinary works by Thai and international artists almost every weekend – that the place must be on speed. 
The evening’s first award was given to the art direction of politically charged physical theatre “Fundamental” by B-Floor Theatre’s co-founder Teerawat “Ka-ge” Mulvilai, who said that the work’s main set prop, the orange road barricades often seen in political demonstration, was nicknamed “salmon”.
Ka-ge took a toilet break afterwards and as soon as he walked back into the room, was called back onstage for best performance by an ensemble award for the same work. This time he asked the ensemble who had worked with him on the creation of the work for three months to share the spotlight. With “Fundamental” packing two out of two awards by far, the next one, that for best movement-based performance, was predictable. 
“With the number of IATC Thailand awards B-Floor Theatre has received in the past few years, the critics should perhaps come up with a Best B-Floor Work award next year,” MC Malys joked.
Ka-ge was also up for the subsequent award, best direction of a play/performance/musical, and “Fundamental” would have made history by sweeping all four awards it was nominated for had it won. However, the critics chose to honour Pattarasuda “Bua” Anuman Rajadhon who staged both Thai and English versions of “Stick Figures” at Thong Lor Art Space (TLAS). Besides showing gratitude to her cast and crew who believed in her crazy idea of staging two versions of the play on alternate evenings with two different casts, Bua thanked American playwright Josh Ginsburg, saying “I didn’t have to do much actually: it’s all in his writing”.

The award for Best Adapted Script went to Wannasak Sirilar for “Snakes”. Photo by Wipawee Chowlert

Then came the three awards for writers. Last year’s recipient of IATC Thailand’s lifetime achievement award Daraka Wongsiri won another best book of a musical for her adaptation of MR Kukrit Pramoj’s “Mom”. Kittisak explained that Daraka had added a good deal to the late national artist and former prime minister’s short story while retaining his original theme. The best adapted script award went to another veteran Wannasak Sirilar for “Snakes”, his “wild and anything-goes” adaptation of Chinese folk tale “Madam White Snake”. Best original script was the “unorthodox, unpredictable yet unpretentious” play “The Disappearance of the Boy on a Sunday Afternoon” by Thanaphon Accawatanyu, a Thammasat University film graduate who also thanked an uncle at a video rental shop for introducing him to so many films.
MC Malys then started to introduce the recipient of the lifetime achievement award Assistant Professor Somporn “Khru Tim” Thopanya (Fourrage), whose classes he took at Thammasat University: “She came into the classroom and asked us to explain how fact, reality and truth differ from one another and when we turned silent she simply left the room. Class over – just like that. But that was in 1990, let’s have someone with a more recent memory of ‘Khru Tim’ on the stage with us.”
Answering the call, TLAS’s curator Wasurachata “Leon” Unaprom added: “She introduced us to ‘scenography’ [while elsewhere students were learning set design] in addition to interdisciplinary works [while others are being limited to the genre of theatre] and, as we’re working in a small theatre studio, taught us how to make something out of nothing.” 
Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University’s lecturer and Sun Dance Theatre’s artistic director Sun Tawanwongsri reiterated: “I’m now also working with my students in a small university theatre studio, and I really make use of what I learned from her.” 
Humble as ever, Khru Tim said when she received the first call about this award she was driving and wasn’t sure whether the critics wanted her to hand out awards to someone at their ceremony. And after her former student told her about IATC Thailand she still wondered why they chose to honour her. “But now that I see what my students are doing [in contemporary Thai theatre] I understand their reason,” she said.

Young actress Varattha Tongyoo was very surprised to edge out her two seniors to take home best performance by a female artist award for her deeply layered role in the Thai version of “Stick Figures”.
When Kaewta announced the name of Witwisit “Pitchy” Hiranyawongkul, from “Cocktails the Musical”, as the winner for best performance by a male artist category, screams were loud, reporters alerted and the cameramen were back behind the lens. Pitchy revealed that he almost backed out of this work, saying “But then one evening I was on TLAS’s balcony resting and saw a few staff members cutting posters and handbills and I realised this work was not my solo.”
For the best musical award, Pitchy was back on stage again, this time with “Cocktails” producer Leon, director and co-lyricist Dulthat Wasinachindakaew, and composer and pianist Jonas Dept. 
Leon commented that it was one of the riskiest projects he’d ever worked on, as the musical play about a mixologist who forgot the recipe for an important cocktail, unlike most musicals here, featured a new story and songs and only one actor and one musician on stage. 
The ceremony concluded with the best play award which went to “The Disappearance of the Boy on a Sunday Afternoon”. This time, Thanaphon also thanked Democrazy Theatre Studio “for the discount [in venue rent]”, then added: “I was bitten by a mouse when I was walking bare-footed in the backyard of Democrazy and I’ve just recently finished taking medicine for this, so anybody who’s using this studio, please wear shoes.”
It’s clear that notwithstanding little support from the government, Thailand’s contemporary dance and theatre persists with sheer variety in form and content, offering what the audience cannot get from screen works – TV, movies and smartphones.
COMING SOON
- “IATC Thailand Dance and Theatre Review 2016”, with reviews of all nominated works, in Thai and English, on contemporary Thai dance and theatre productions premiered in Bangkok last year, can be soon downloaded, free of charge, at www.Facebook.com/
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