A decade in the limelight

In choosing the 10 best theatre productions of the decade, I started by listing some of my favourite productions, based almost purely on enjoyment. That would not do, of course. The more important questions are those of cultural and artistic impact. So of the shows that made it on this list, some are Thai-theatre-scene firsts, some are rarities, some are triumphs of age-old and underappreciated crafts. But all of them are ambitious, original and uncompromising. They have become indelible to me and, I hope, to many others. And they excited me then as much as they excite me now, looking back months and years later.

10. Monrak Pleng Sawan (The Sound Of Music)

2015 | Directed by Yuthtana Lopanpaibul

Although the number of musical productions in Thailand has spiked in the past decade, the quality of original Thai musicals is still developing in many areas. I picked this first Thai-language production of The Sound Of Music not just for the excellence of the acting and vocal performances. The production wouldn't have been as successful or memorable if it weren't for Narin Prasoppakdee's triumph of a translation. This is how you treat a classic — with craft and care, as a labour of love.

9. The Disappearance Of The Boy On A Sunday Afternoon

2016 | Directed by Thanaphon Accawatanyu |Splashing Theatre Company

I don't think anybody dares to be as bold, weird and obscure as this young director and playwright. This play, the company's fourth, was indeed jarring — for its length, cryptic quality and quiet but troubling violence. Though he continues to make theatre with the typical excesses of a young artist, with this play Thanaphon showed us what an astute sense he has for human conflict and political allegory.

8. A Nowhere Place

2016 | Directed by Pradit Prasartthong

There were several powerful productions to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the October 6, 1976, massacre, but Pradit's play was the only, perhaps the first ever, to approach the topic from a psychological angle, to portray the event from both sides of the conflict and to defy easy categorisation of humans without excusing or whitewashing a crime. With this play, he showed us how a mature artist treats a divisive historical event and offered a new way to look at it.

7. In Ter's View x New Cambodian Artists

2019 | Directed by Wichaya Artamat

Wichaya began training his documentarian lens on stage performers in 2014 with In Ter's View: A Documentary Theatre, in which Thai actresses performed monologues and answered questions from the audience. A similar format has since been used with TV actresses in Nang (Rai): Siamese Femme Fatales and with an actor dealing with a career-defining role in Private Conversation: A Farewell To Love Of Siam. I picked this version of In Ter's View because it's one of the best products of international collaboration I've ever seen. In this incarnation, the interview-performance format felt more like a platform for artists to be freer than before. And these young and outspoken contemporary dancers just stole my heart with their charm, intellect and courage.

6. Lear & His 3 Daughters

2012 | Directed by Jaa Phantachat | B-Floor Theatre

As a director, Jaa has gone from strength to strength in the past decade. Her work is deep, intelligent and playfully provocative. This wordless dance-theatre adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear is an incisive commentary on the abuse of Article 112 and the rampant witch-hunt at the time. Instead of laws and politics, she spoke of love and our capacity for savagery in the name of it. Instead of Macbeth, not an uncommon choice in Thailand for political commentary, she chose a king like Lear. It's one of those rare occasions when we see a flawed, human portrayal of a monarch in Thai art.

5. Hipster the King

2014 | Directed by Thanapol Virulhakul

Thanapol's work has largely been about Thais' relationship with the country's long-revered institutions, and his choreography has always defied the definition of dance. This one went further by having actors standing still in a tableau for most of the performance, like monuments of great men and women — an invisible character engaged with the audience through text, telling us to respect these figures and their sacrifices. Thanapol always asks interesting questions about the human body, and in this piece, the audience was asked, sometimes pressured, into admiring bodies — mere shells — of strangers. It's a sly satire on idolatry and propaganda in Thailand.

4. Happy New Year Mr. Smith

2016 | Directed by Nophand Boonyai

A good original straight play in Thailand remains a rarity. Happy New Year Mr. Smith is one of those rare occurrences of this decade. It's accessible, entertaining and unpretentious, but also unconventional, inventive and moving. The play marks an important step in this unique playwright and artist's career — more sincere, less aloof. It speaks to the current generation of creative souls trying to simultaneously grow up and ripen into midlife. More importantly, we saw a struggling TV writer portrayed as a genuine writer — a creative, an artist — in a country where playwrights, TV writers and screenwriters are usually not considered as such.

3. (In)Sensitivity

2013 | Directed by Dujdao Vadhanapakorn | B-Floor Theatre

Last decade, Dujdao broke a thick barrier in Thai theatre and brought physical intimacy to the stage. She is also one of the artists who can be credited with bringing the work of mental-health professionals to Thai theatre. With (In)Sensitivity, she encouraged both physical intimacy among audience members and a quest into our own hearts as we witnessed scenes of violence. But it was the production design that changed the way I saw Dujdao as an artist. The images in the production, scene after scene, were some of the most beautiful, arresting and original I had ever seen. (In)Sensitivity was a work of relentless, almost ruthless, beauty.

2. Flu-Fool

2011 | Directed by Teerawat Mulvilai | B-Floor Theatre

The first half of the decade saw some of Teerawat's most fiery and ambitious works. Flu O Less Sense was first staged in the immediate aftermath of the crackdown on the redshirt protesters in 2010. The fog had barely lifted and we were already watching an artistic response to such a complex event. It felt premature. A year later, Teerawat combined Flu O Less Sense with a new part, Fool Alright, into Flu-Fool. With some distance from the bloodshed, Flu-Fool felt at once raw and ripe. The 2010 political violence was still fresh in people's memories, but the artistic response had had more time to deepen and mature. Looking back, the show felt expansive and epic, tracing the decadence and decay of Thailand's ruling class through striking images.

1. Bang La Merd

2012 & 2015 | Directed by Ornanong Thaisriwong | B-Floor Theatre

No other production in the past decade dealt with Article 112 and its enforcement as bluntly and artfully as this solo performance. Although the show contained both monologues and movement, Ornanong didn't use movement to shroud a dicey topic. Instead, she used words to concretise a dangerous issue onstage, and her body to express the inner state of a human, all humans, when violated and forced into silence. Ornanong's directorial debut not only confirmed her talent as a performer, but also established her as a serious artist with a point of view that would not be denied.

Top Productions of 2019

The Quiet House (Second Edition)

Co-created by Teerawat Mulvilai (B-Floor), Yuko Kawamoto (Shinonomebutoh) and AJ Photisane (Laobangfai), this physical theatre piece, inspired by the havoc of landmines in the region, depicts the devastation of war with powerful images (grey, dusty piles of laterite stone), crisp and spare choreography, and black comedy. It's the most affecting and beautiful production this year.

In Ter's View x New Cambodian Artists

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Nil's Vision

This sweet little play is a wonderful collaboration between an artist with visual impairment and those with vision. Through words, live music, and video, Nil takes us through the history of his vision and into his state of mind as his world darkened and eventually brightened again. Though not an aesthetically ambitious production, it charmed with its warmth and sincerity.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Jaa Phantachat's musical adaptation of the bard's comedy transformed Angoon Malik Garden into a place of magic and romance. It was as the play should be — fun, delightful, rib-tickling, and, as any B-Floor production is expected to be, political. This time, though, the politics was tucked slyly underneath, and the play could be enjoyed by people of all ages and political stripes.