The boy from the Northeast

PICHET KLUNCHUN Dance Company is becoming more prolific and taking more risks this year, as opposed to last year when they restaged many of their works in the repertoire. Barely two months into 2019 and they’ve already staged three new experimental works: “The Intangibles of Emptiness” and “Overloaded” by the whole company, and solo work “The Boy Next Door” (in Northeastern Thai dialect “Phu Bao Thai Ban”) which ended its two-weekend run last night.

Padung Jumpan presents his first solo performance. /Photo courtesy of Nattapol Meechart 

 Waiting for curtain time in the foyer, audience members watched a brief introductory video narrating the background of PadungJumpan, who was trained as a monkey (ling) character in khon before joining this company. Footage of him conducting a khon ling workshop was also shown. Before long, very loud and upbeat mor lam music spilled out from the theatre and we walked in to see a young member of the company dancing freely with high energy to the music. Black curtains were half drawn revealing part of the backdrop of a Buddha image painting. We soon realised the music was actually from a modified motorcycle with sound equipment and special lighting. Soon after Padung appeared from upstage, he closed the curtains.

Photo courtesy of Nattapol Meechart 

Throughout the 45-minute performance, Padung showed us his new choreography, which seamlessly and joyfully blends his khon ling training with other styles of dance from many traditions. It served as a reminder that when an artist is set free, as opposed to being confined by rules set up by traditions or arts disciplines, he can have much fun, and so do we, the audience. After all, Thailand means the land of the free, does it not?

Photo courtesy of Nattapol Meechart 

 “The Boy Next Door” is also a sincere contemporary dance work and the combination, or juxtaposition, of its physical movement and music reveals that this is the kind of music, and tradition, the artist grew up with and still enjoys listening to. The fact that he was later trained in a court tradition of khon doesn’t mean he’s either been centralised or forgotten his Northeastern roots. In the true spirit of a solo performance, Padung also spent time during his show rearranging various lighting sources and controlling all lighting and music cues by himself. That was, unfortunately, a slight drawback in this first solo work. A dramaturg or a director could have solved this problem. 
 After the performance, Pichet himself appeared onstage and explained that this year the company is interested in creating performances by marginalised groups of people, and an in-progress work is about Burmese migrants. 

Photo courtesy of Nattapol Meechart 

 Noting that audience numbers were much lower than expected for this company member’s work, he said that they’re considering extending the run of “The Boy Next Door”.
 “We have our own theatre anyway. And whenever anyone wants to watch this, even if it’s only a few people, we’ll put it on again.” He also reiterated that his idea of running a dance company is to develop dancers and choreographers so that they are able to develop their own work, in addition to the company’s, and thus one day they can leave the company.
 But the alarmingly low number of audience members that Saturday night also raises the question of whether we, the audience, always expect to watch Pichet’s performance, either solo or with someone else, each and every time we visit Chang Theatre.

The Man from Taiwan
The much-anticipated duet between Pichet and Taiwanese dancer Chen Wu-Kang titled “Behalf”, which premiered last year at Cloud Gate Theatre in Taipei and featuring lighting design by Dumb Type member Takayuki “Kinsei” Fujimoto, will be at Chang Theatre, in Thung Khru, Thonburi, on March 29 and 30. 
Visit Facebook.com/ChangTheatre for more details.