Performer and director Ladda Kongdach of Crescent Moon Theatre has quietly impressed Bangkok theatregoers for a few years with her focused, subtle performances, often in supporting roles and sometimes playing several roles in the same production. In her latest work, Parallel [Between The Lines], her second solo show (and first full-length), the artist takes us into her parallel universe to explore the notion of self and another self.
The show begins with a slow, hypnotic video projection of the universe, from a single glowing point that explodes into tiny flying dots floating through space. Equally slowly, and as if floating, Ladda enters, then starts to move like a fluid mass, contracting and expanding. Soon the movements turn more childlike -- a kid learning to stand up and walk. The video projection, too, shifts from images of the birth of the universe to the beginning of human life.
In the next scene, Ladda returns with a puppet as tall as herself and draped in white -- her other self, perhaps. Her relationship with it is gentle and affectionate. They touch each other's faces in recognition, embrace, dance and comfort each other. The scene is brief, too brief to deepen and become truly intimate.
Ladda jumps to the next scene -- a more energetic one -- entering this time with red ribbons tied around her waist. She then untangles them and ties one end of each ribbon to the wrist or leg of an audience member. Soon, there are red lines that stretch from the audience to the stage, to Ladda's body. The scene and the connection she has begun to establish with the audience have great potential for intimacy, but Ladda only skirts the emotional exploration. She dances lightly and happily, but the movements are limited. They tell no stories about herself or about us. Despite the strings that physically attach the audience to her, Ladda herself has barely reached out.
In the final moments of the show, Ladda circles back to the beginning. The images of the birth of the universe return, with music that's spare and gentle. But while her movements in the beginning were ones of strength and rootedness, her movements in the end have more levity, almost more freedom, in them. And that feeling of comfort and consolation in the scene with the puppet, too, returns.
Ladda is a charismatic performer. She has a showmanship of a street performer who can charm and hold a crowd. But for a solo show about self, Parallel [Between The Lines] is general and impersonal. We walked out still knowing nothing about her.
Parallel [Between The Lines] continues until Sept 20, 8pm, at Crescent Moon Space, Pridi Banomyong Institute. Tickets are 400 baht. For reservations, call 08-1929-4246 or 08-3123-6331 or visit the Crescent Moon Theatre Facebook page.
