Theatre on the fringe

The crowds may have been small, but the Bangkok Fringe Festival 2008 started off its first week with style, with Patravadi Theatre's Theatre-in-the-Garden offering two triple-bill performances of grooves and movements that drew enthusiastic applause.

From acrobatics to various forms of dance to physical theatre, this "Home for the Performing Artists" is certainly versatile. Also, the annual showcase, despite last year's gap, proves Thailand's capability in bring together local and international artists and allowing them to express themselves and share their stories with us.

Patravadi fans flocked to the opening show, which was staged on both Thursday and Friday, eager for another chance to catch "Osmosis", a stunning showcase of acrobatics by young Thai talent Rajanikara Kaewdee in collaboration with Canadian musician and director Jerry Snell.

Sitting on his knees under the spotlight against the dark stage, Rajanikara reached down to pick up two Thai swords then gradually unsheathed them. Then, to the accompaniment of music by industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, he drew the audience into his arm movements, which progressed to the whole body with increasing intensity. As he twirled the swords around his legs and neck, it seemed as though he would surely cut himself but no, he remained confident and assured. Then he moved to a long piece of red cloth hanging from the ceiling, climbed up, and intertwined himself in different ways before letting himself fall to the ground, saved only by the tie at his ankle or another body part.

All through the 20 minutes of this aesthetically fulfilling show, the audience could see traces of traditional Thai dance movements. Rajanikara is a consummate performer, as those who have seen him as Studio 9 already known, and his artistic acrobatics are far from mere circus thrill as he guides the audience's emotions from serenity to rage and reminds us of our willingness to take risks.

Anita Ratnam from India was next to take the stage with "7 Graces", a contemporary dance described as a "solo operatic offering into aesthetic realms of Goddess Tara". Unfortunately, the fact that it followed Rajanikara's high-energy piece killed it for most of the audience. Ratnam started by walking backwards around the stage, dragging an invisible rope. The only thing she did after that, at least for this reviewer, was to drag the performance on for another 30 minutes. The show was lacklustre, there was little to offer from a choreographic standpoint and it felt endless.

The last part in the first triple-bill performance was the contemporary dance "Past is Simulation - the Ladies of the Sea vs Nora, and Other Stories of Society" by Norwegian company herStay, which was inspired by Ibsen's "The Lady from the Sea" and "A Dolls House". Although the innovative interaction between a dancer and a radio-controlled plane caught the audience's attention at the beginning, the performance went downhill the moment the toy aircraft landed. Overall, it was visually pleasant, but emotionally very monotonous.

Dance was again on the Fringe menu on Friday and Saturday evenings, and while none of the dancers from Kuala Lumpur's National Arts Culture and Heritage Academy possessed perfect dancers' bodies or exceptional techniques, "Freedom @ Boredom", which explored the mutual relationship between deliverance and ennui, produced great energy.

"When They Cut off the Light", another short solo from the same troupe reflected how humans struggle in the hectic, industrialised world, using jerking actions along with projections juxtaposing images of congested roads with countless chicks on a conveyor belt.

In contrast, the American and Indonesian multimedia collaboration "The Sound of Ashes" took audience members to a state of stillness and meditation. Alex Dea led us through Javanese rituals and abstract video patterns of the sea and traditional court dance, suggesting two sides to everything.

The first weekend closed with another intercultural collaboration - the US and Germany's "Preservation (A Bird Mutation)" by kInDeRdeUtScH pRoJeKtS.

Although this physical theatre piece was somehow very "verbal", there were some clever movements and they contributed to brief laughter. The piece was interestingly performed within a small white space on stage and featured white props and three actors all dressed in white, with the spoken languages shifting back and forth from English to German (with English surtitles). The play explored sexual desire and painful memories caused by wars through the "long-lost, now-found" woman who was "left-for-dead" by her sister.

The Bangkok Fringe Festival continues every weekend until February 17 at the Patravadi Theatre. For more details, visit Patravaditheatre.com

The writer can be contacted at min_ballet@hotmail.com. For more about dance in Bangkok, check out blog.nationmultimedia.com/dance_and_theatre.

Jasmine Baker

Special to The Nation