Showing 91 - 97 of 97
Troupes on display
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 15/02/2012
» In the hodgepodge of student, amateur, professional and comeback theatre troupes that, for a decade, have together defined the Bangkok Theatre Festival (BTF), it can be difficult to discover the shining newcomers. Even those who have been on the scene for years can easily get lost in the muddle. While regular theatre-goers may prefer to invest their energy in watching the works of long-standing reputable troupes, sometimes it's the new discoveries that make your theatre-going experience all the more worthwhile and exciting. We talked to newly formed and lesser-known companies of veterans and new blood to give you a glimpse into this year's festival and the direction of the local theatre scene.
Steadily Forward
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 15/02/2012
» Before ushering the Bangkok Theatre Festival (BTF) into its 10th year, Nut Nualpang, founder of Saosoong Theatre and this year's festival programme director, strapped the regular members of the Bangkok Theatre Network (BTN), comprising a handful of small professional theatre companies, onto the operating table. Not only did they come under the knives of fellow artists and audience members, these theatre practitioners also got to spill their guts in a series of informal talks called kheun khiang (literally "getting on the chopping block").
Theatre of (losing) control
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 08/02/2012
» A man's life swerves out of control when a car hits and kills his daughter on her way to her piano lesson. The man behind the wheel is a stage hypnotist, whose ability to guide people's mind out of the realm of reality falls to pieces after the accident. Tim Crouch's An Oak Tree, which tells the story of these two men and their encounter three months after the tragedy, leads us out of the conventional state of control in theatre and into another form of hypnotic state.
Theatre as a mirror
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 02/02/2012
» We asked a number of local playwrights, directors and performers to pick a play they believe speaks about present-day Thailand. The play could be thousands of years old or recently written. We didn't limit the choice to works originally written in Thai.
Therapy as art, and vice versa
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 25/01/2012
» Growing up in this country, I often heard people say that Thais don't go to psychiatrists to sort out their problems; they go to fortune-tellers. Later, while I was living in the West, I saw many individuals running to counsellors and therapists to untangle the knots and smooth out the bumps in their lives.
Courageous convictions
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 19/01/2012
» 'When we came back and saw the state of our school, we didn't know where to begin. We didn't know what to touch first or pick up first," said Janaprakal "Khru Chang" Chandruang.
A casualty of flood
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 02/01/2012
» The water comes to Patravadi Theatre every year, like to everyone else in soi Wat Rakang. This year it arrived in much greater quantity and stayed there longer than usual, but long enough to force Patravadi Theatre to close its door for good. The damage is too great to turn the place back into a functioning theatre once more. But its owner Patravadi Mejudhon is least sentimental about the loss.