Channelling his demons

Channelling his demons

Director Robin Schroeter's new play comes from a sad, dark place to provide light relief to Thai audiences

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Channelling his demons

Robin Schroeter’s directorial debut Compassion at Crescent Moon Space is a comedy with a strong fantasy feel to it. Set in hell, the human world and a demon’s apartment, the play is about a female demon summoned by three other demons to kill a demon slayer. The themes of the play are relationships, love and hate.

A rehearsal session for Compassion. Photo: Robin Schroeter

The origin of the idea, however, was something rather sad. The 32-year-old German director and actor said his inspiration was the end of his nine-year relationship with his wife.

“I was fairly disturbed and confused,” said Schroeter. “And sometimes the periods when you’re emotionally upset is also when you are very creative. So I channelled the energy into writing the script. The core is really about my relationship with her and the story that developed around it is quite fun actually. So you have the sad core and a very funny framework to make the play light.”

Punika Rangchaya plays Rachel, the female demon, with Wasu Wanrayangkoon as Damien, the demon slayer. It’s not difficult to guess that they portray Schroeter and his ex-wife.

Robin Schroeter.

“The story is really about Rachel, about the demons... she’s a demon,” Schroeter smiled good-humouredly. “But they are not that clearly defined, so some of the things that she says might be something that I would say.”

At first Schroeter was going to make it a story of two men but decided to make it a couple instead for drama’s sake.

“Rachel is very small and the three demons who summon her are very disappointed,” said Schroeter. “She looks like she couldn’t harm anybody, but she can. She goes into the world of humans and she discovers her power. She starts to have fun with it and then the demon slayer comes and he interferes with her game with the humans. He has special power as well and that irritates her.”

With the political situation dragging on, Schroeter chose fantasy both because he likes it and because he thought people needed some comedy, something light to watch and enjoy.

Schoeter began by writing a 10-page treatment and left it for a while because he had never written dialogue before. He also has been continuously involved with theatre productions such as Theerawat Mulvilai’s The Remains and Nophand Boonyai’s Utopian Malady until he finally got back to his writing earlier this year.

“After Utopian Malady, I talked to Nophand Boonyai. I was surprised to learn that he studied design. I realised the only way to write the script was to just start writing. After that I sat down and finished within two weeks,” said Schoeter.

Working as a director for the first time, the difficulty now is not getting into his character, but dealing with other factors, controlling the play as a whole. The real challenge in this, the German director said, was to direct a group of actors who speak little English.

“My Thai is good enough for pretty intense conversation,” said Schroeter. “But when it comes down to explaining the psychology of the characters, that’s quite something. That’s why it took two-and-a-half months and by now they know what I am talking about. We use
a dictionary every now and then.”


- Compassion is to be staged from May 22-26, 29-31 and June 1-2 at 7.30pm at Crescent Moon Space, Pridi Banomyong Institute. Tickets cost 450 baht for the first week and 500 baht for the second. The play has English subtitles.
- Call 099-179-5731 for reservations.

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT