Retirement visa, please

WHEN I first received an email about the new play “Retire-men” by Japanese playwright Yayoi Shimisu, which ended its tour at Creative Industries in Bangkok after touring to Manila and Chiang Mai, the title was written without the hyphen. As a former English major at university, I wrote back to ask whether it was a typo. The answer was that it was the Japanese team’s intention. It didn’t make sense until I got to watch the play and realised I hadn’t been to a Japanese noodle shop for a while. 
The play’s brief description brought to mind a fellow Indian passenger on a Bangkok-bound flight from New Delhi almost 10 years ago. Having spent most of his professional career in the US and then retired, he was coming to spend his golden years in Thailand and intended to look for a Thai wife. Our conversation went so well, or perhaps the drinks were so good, that I gave him my mobile phone number and two months later he called, asking me to translate a love letter he had written to a Thai woman. I didn’t and that was the last time we talked. Thailand is, to all extents and purposes, a paradise for foreign retirees. 

“Retiremen” had its Thailand debut at Thepsiri Gallery in expatfriendly Chiang Mai before showing in Bangkok. Photo/Pornthep Chitpong

Despite its title, this play also discussed the other side of the coin – for example, how Filipino workers and Japanese-Filipino children, are not as well-accepted by Japanese society as Japanese retired men are in the Philippines or Thailand. 
The play reminded us too how there’d be no demand if there were no supply, and how we’d gone out of our way to make foreign expats, and not only Japanese ones, happier than they are back in their home countries. 
Notwithstanding the play’s heavy messages, all of them fuelled by a good amount of research in the three countries, directors Yoji Sakate and Silpathorn artist Nikorn Sae Tang deftly used humour to reel in the audience. When the three senior Japanese actors sang the main song “Retire-men”, the audience understood why this title was, linguistically and culturally, more appropriate than “Retired Men”. The minimal use of set props, particularly wooden stools, also moved the play along smoothly and the audience got to exercise its imagination occasionally, without ever getting confused. 

Photo/Pornthep Chitpong

Rather confusing sometimes, though, was the use of four languages in the dialogues – Japanese, English, Thai and Tagalog – and three in the surtitles – where Tagalog was omitted. Most actors spoke more than one language and as a result the audience, most of whom were familiar with more than one language, didn’t know whether to listen or to read. 

Photo/Pornthep Chitpong

“Retire-men” is an affirmation that a good play not only entertains but also informs and leaves its audience with some questions to debate –the fact that most audience members stayed on for the post-show Q&A on opening night is evidence of this. And, interestingly, while the funding is mainly from Japan, especially the Japan Foundation’s Asia Centre, which continues to promote the exchange between Japan and Southeast Asia, this issue is more internationally relevant. 
The play is openly critical of the Japanese government’s policy on immigrants as well as that country’s strong belief that, no matter how old, one should never be a burden on others. I can’t imagine a contemporary Thai production revealing some of our country’s dark sides, like sex tourism, corruption or politics and still remaining a candidate for government support.
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