Showing 11 - 20 of 87
No comfort for young women
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 17/08/2018
» One of the biggest issues commanding media attention in the past year has been that of gender violence. And Peel the Limelight has dedicated this year to staging plays that shed light on the topic from different angles, starting with a production of Agnes Of God, about a young nun with a history of abuse. That was followed by I Am My Own Wife, a one-person play about the life of a transgender woman during World War II and the Communist regime in East Berlin.
Dance without a safety net
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 09/08/2018
» Choreographer Thanapol Virulhakul is adamant about creating performances that defy the definition of dance. In his "contemporary dance piece" Hipster The King, performers stand in a tableau for most of the show. In Happy Hunting Ground, the choreography consists mostly of jogging up and down the stage.
Shows for all seasons
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 15/03/2018
» 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.
Transmitting human angst
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 01/03/2018
» Second time's a charm for Fullfat Theatre at Warehouse 30. The company returns to the space that had dwarfed and overwhelmed the troupe's first play [Co/exist] with its sheer size and uninsulated high ceiling. With the new play, Taxiradio, playwright-director and Fullfat co-founder Nophand Boonyai has successfully tamed the rugged space to achieve not only live performance suitability, but also intimacy.
Freeform art
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 01/12/2017
» A decade ago, theatre was still seen an art form on the margin in Thailand. That is less true today. Visual art and design events are beginning to include theatre in their programmes. The new art and design event Freeform Festival has revived an abandoned school building at ACMEN Ekamai Complex with exhibitions, workshops, food trucks, plays and dance. Their performing arts programme is a solid one. Hopefully, this will become another platform for quality theatre in the future.
Politics? What politics?
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 28/09/2017
» Jaa Pantachat's revival of her 2015 experimental comedic whodunnit Ceci N'est Pas La Politique (This Is Not Politics) may have maintained its original structure and storyline, but in this trimmed and funnier version, it has gained both clarity and poignancy.
Passionate, but ultimately superficial
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 21/09/2017
» There is no shortage of passion and potential in the new Thai-language musical, 21¾, about the dreams and struggles of urbanites in their early 20s.
A Thai twist on the Bard
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 14/09/2017
» Who wouldn't be excited when some of Thailand's greatest living comedic actors gather for a Shakespeare romp? And even though the vivacious and capable cast of Dreambox's Thai-language production of Twelfth Night (or as it's alternatively known, What You Will), deliver a generally entertaining show, the play at times suffers from its own inhibition and faithfulness to the Bard's text.
Chit Phumisak, on stage
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 07/09/2017
» Splashing Theatre returns to the stage with Teenage Wasteland: Summer, Star And The (Lost) Chrysanthemum, a play inspired by the life and work of Chit Phumisak. At times moving, at times frustratingly obscure, Thanaphon Accawatanyu's ambitious new creation makes a subtle statement about institutional violence against Thai youth and political dissidents.
Life's agonies, magnified three-fold
Life, Amitha Amranand, Published on 24/08/2017
» Theatre director Bhanbhassa Dhubthien may not be known for novel or subversive interpretations of plays, but she has always worked with good actors, from whom she draws out the kind of nuanced performances we don't often see here in Thailand. She has also worked with texts of varying degrees of difficulty and ripeness. So even when the writing fails, her actors can always steer the production from complete disaster.