FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

Are we ready to move forward?

Are we ready to move forward?

Thailand’s first openly transgender MP delivers a praiseworthy performance – on stage

Ready for her sex reassignment surgery, Mayuri travelled from Chiang Mai to Phuket to bail her son, who she didn’t know existed, out of jail. On the way back, the reunited biological father and son learned about each other’s trouble-filled past and present and explored possibilities of their new lives in a society not yet ready for the LGBTQ+ movement’s diversity.
If this remarkable plot sounds familiar, especially for film lovers, it’s because “TranS I-AM” is a Thai stage adaptation of the 2005 American film “Transamerica” starring Felicity Huffman. Much credit is due to the three-member script adaptation team, which also includes the play’s director Apirak Chaipanha, who made the script not only Thai but also contemporary. Even in the title, and usually I would doubt the artist’s language proficiency when a Thai work has only an English title – one cannot simply find a Thai equivalent of “TranS I-AM” – but have to commend, and smile at, the use of mixed lower and uppercased letters and a hyphen.

 

Are we ready to move forward?

Further adaptations to this road movie script could have been made, though: some underdeveloped and somewhat cartoonish bit characters could have been easily cut, the play took place in too many locations, and there were too many scene changes, despite the set design allowing for this to very smooth, for the audience to be fully engaged in some scenes. 
Casting is a critical part of the director’s job and having award-winning film-director-cum-trail-blazing-member-of-parliament Tanwarin Sukkhapisit in this pivotal role was Apirak’s job half done. The other half is their collaboration which resulted in her truthful performance, subtle yet arresting, making most members of the audience empathise with her and feel her troubles. The two directors made smart use of all members of the acting ensemble, a mix of veterans and newcomers and kept the play running at a good pace – two hours without an intermission didn’t feel like 120 minutes.

 

Are we ready to move forward?


A scene when Mayuri returned home to borrow money from her mum and dad and had a heart-to-heart talk with her retired father was so touching that it brought tears to many audience members’ eyes, including mine. This was thanks to the sincere performance by both Tanwarin and seasoned stage actor Saifah Tantana. It also brought back the two promises an only child like me had made with, and kept, my dad – never ever taking drugs or becoming homosexual—but that was in the 1970s and here we are, six months before the end of the 2010s.
By press time, we don’t know yet whether Tanwarin and her few LGBTQ+ MP colleagues have, against all odds, made it into the new government so that they can push this significant advocacy forward. Here in the land of the free, we’ve been hearing about equal rights for many years – since our last democratic government to be precise – but nothing has concretely transitioned and Taiwan recently became the first Asian country to legalise same-sex marriage. Nevertheless, with “TranS I-AM” attracting near fullhouse audiences last, and very likely this, weekend, we’re reminded that theatre remains one of the most liberal media through which artists can express themselves freely in this supposedly democratic country, despite the fact that the numbers hearing their cases are much lower than those of others.

 

Are we ready to move forward?


With this second work, Qrious Theatre has also lived up to their promise of being “a company of young theatre lovers who aim to present entertaining stage works that can be enjoyed by audiences of all ages and are a public platform for young people’s expression”. The essence of the drama here was in good balance with the entertainment, and not watered down. Many audience members, myself included, didn’t watch “#Mare 2018”, their debut last November at the Bangkok Theatre Festival. We won’t miss their third work.

Not All LGBTO People Think Alike

- Qrious Theatre’s “TranS I-AM” continues from tomorrow to Sunday at 8pm, plus 2pm shows on Saturday and Sunday at Saeng Arun Art and Culture Centre in Soi Sathorn 10 (a 5-minute walk from BTS Chong Nonsi, Exit 1). 
- In Thai with no English translation. Tickets, now selling fast, cost Bt 700 and Bt 500, at www.facebook.com/ QriousTheatre.
 

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