March kicked off with the return of French choreographer Jérôme Bel to Bangkok, bringing with him two productions to close the French Highlights #3. Then English-speaking theatre company Peel the Limelight celebrated International Women's Day with the premiere of their latest production of Agnes Of God in their new and larger venue, Peel the Limelight Studio, just across from their old home, Spark Drama Studio, at Jasmine City building in Asok. And Bangkok-based Japanese theatre artist Shogo Tanikawa founded his own theatre company Scene Zero and gave birth to a new play. Here are our reviews of these performances.
4 Seasons
Playwright-director Shogo Tanikawa has written a moving play that taps into the experience of outsiders. 4 Seasons follows a group of Thai people living and working in Japan over the course of a year. There is Ar-ngun (Patrarin Panyanutatum), a newcomer working illegally as a masseuse; Meaow (Suthida Jantrabutr) and May (Sumontha Suanpholrat) who are married to Japanese men; and Kratai (Thongchai Pimapunsri), a muay Thai instructor.
May has a teenage daughter, Chi Chang (Phatcharawan Khrueaphan), who's decided not to go to school. To secure her stay in Japan, Ar-ngun agrees to an arranged marriage to a Japanese man, Dai Dai (Tanikawa), who doesn't want to get married but is financially desperate. Profiting from people's desperation is a Thai man, Takechi (Thanakorn Thipayametrakul), who also makes the rules for these marriages (no touching, no kissing, no sex). Tanikawa has sketched sensitive portraits of people who don't feel they fully belong anywhere.
But 4 Seasons doesn't indulge in the typical narrative of foreignness or otherness. Instead, it explores the lies we tell in fragile circumstances for a scrap of that sense of security and belonging. The final act is rushed and sloppy, but this is Tanikawa's most enjoyable and affecting play to date.
Agnes Of God
Peel the Limelight shows support for the #MeToo and Time's Up movements with the staging of John Pielmeier's Agnes Of God. The three-character play follows court psychiatrist Dr Martha Livingston (Heen Sasithorn) as she tries to get to the bottom of the mysterious death of a newborn baby in a convent. The prime suspect is Agnes (Siree Riewpaiboon), a novice nun who claims to have no knowledge of her pregnancy. Martha's investigation and secular faith are further challenged by Agnes's protective Mother Superior, Mother Miriam Ruth (Claire Stanley).
Agnes Of God. Photo: Surasak Kerdsin
Director Peter O'Neill took obvious joy in the greater flexibility of the new space but kept things simple. The performance area is shaped like a cross while the audience is seated in the round. The staging is generally effective, although some may find it difficult to see the actors' faces. But Agnes Of God is more a play of words and voice -- Agnes' singing and the fiery debates between Mother Miriam and Martha. It's a play about faith and the mind -- things that cannot be seen. But if you've lost faith in ever seeing any weighty and exciting acting on the Bangkok stage, these three actresses are going to renew it for you.
Pichet Klunchun And Myself
I first saw the show during La Fete 2012 at Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts. Perhaps it was the political atmosphere at the time, but Pichet came off naive about his own culture, and questions posed to him by Jérôme Bel sounded more like Socratic irony than real inquiry. The questions are about each dancer's form and work, but the ones coming from Bel seemed to contain political subtext that escaped Pichet.
Pichet Klunchun And Myself, in 2006 at the old Chang Theatre. Photo: Association R.B.
This time, at the new Chang Theatre, and under a new political regime and new monarch, the piece felt completely different to me. When asked whether changes had been made, Pichet told me that he and Bel had been performing the same script for years. Pichet seemed sassier while Bel genuinely curious, even apologetic for his ignorance of Thai culture and classical dance. The scenes where Pichet performed Totsakan belittling Rama and explained the funeral procession rang with new meaning -- and new socio-political subtext.
After all these years, Pichet remains an exquisite classical dancer while Bel has become more relaxed and endearing with age. Their stage rapport, too seemed to have grown more affectionate. The show surprised me with its continued freshness and relevance and how, even with the same stories, we all change overtime.
Gala
Whether or not you've undergone dance training, no matter what age you are, whether or not you have disabilities, when you're moving on the stage in Jérôme Bel's Gala, you're dancing and are a dancer. In this beautiful, jubilant piece that was created in 2015 and has since been reproduced with locals across Europe and in several countries in the Americas and Asia, the 15 performers interpret different dance forms, dance in silence and with music, dance alone and all together, demonstrate their skills and reveal their limitations. In the Bangkok production, the ensemble comprised children, teenagers, elderly performers, one with Down's syndrome, a man in a wheelchair, a gymnast and khon, northern Thai, ballet, ballroom and burlesque dancers.
Gala. Photo: Siriwan Pakmei
Gala doesn't diminish professional dancing or its rigour. Instead, it shows us that everyone's body has its own strengths and ways of overcoming obstacles. It allows us to both be in awe of human physical capacity and have a sense of humour about our individual limitations. In Gala, the act of dancing onstage is made more mundane and democratic. It doesn't celebrate just any kind of dancing, but the kind people do with, for and in front of others.
Agnes Of God continues today until Saturday at 7.30pm and on March 22 and 23 at 8pm, at Peel the Limelight Studio, 2nd floor, Jasmine City. Tickets are 600 baht (500 baht for students and 10% discount for groups of 10 or more). Visit peelthelimelight.com. Performances are in English with Thai surtitles.
