In all shapes and sizes

The third weekend of the Bangkok Fringe Festival is a case of good news and, in a minor setback, some bad news.

Bad news first: host company Patravadi Theatre's new musical "Sang Thong", originally scheduled to premiere tonight, is now postponed until next month. But, the good news is that a new work by Pichet Klunchun and his Life Work Company will be staged.

Pichet, an internationally renowned dance artist and recipient of the Ministry of Culture's Silpathorn Award, is ready to perform "A Piece of Coin" in Patravadi's Theatre in the Garden main stage.

"The concept of 'A Piece of Coin' has changed throughout my creation process. Initially, five months ago, I wanted to comment on the current state of classical Thai performance. Then, I realised that I was making these comments from my side, and maybe that's not fair. Well, in fact, I've been criticising this for the past three years, and little has changed. We still see photos of classical Thai dancers with foreign tourists in restaurants. Thus, I shifted my direction.

"It's a major question for me where I'm heading from here on now, so I've put my criticism on the current state of classical Thai dance aside."

In the 25-minute 'A Piece of Coin', Pichet will look at the issues of social classes, the body, knowing yourself and others, and a little bit of politics.

"I notice that there are a lot of advertisements promoting white faces and slim bodies," says Pichet. "Why is everybody looking at only one model?"

To get his point across, four male performers of different body types will be featured. "One weighs about 45 kilograms; another about 110kg; the third one is a 20-year-old man with nice muscles; and the last one a thirty-something office worker who doesn't have time to exercise. The big person also dances, and this will show that beauty can happen in many dimensions. If we fall into the trap of [the slim] social model, we'll feel bad about ourselves," he says.

"In Thailand, we only look at dance performance as a compilation of techniques set into certain frameworks like that of ballet. We often forget that dance performance consists of body, time, space, and reactions to the body. If we have all of these, then we can create a dance language," Pichet says.

Following "Coin" will be "BSP 08" by Bare Stage Project, a contemporary dance troupe from Hong Kong. Tag-lined "Let the body flow; Let the mind grow," eight dancer-choreographers will celebrate the true essence of dance, and life, on an empty stage, with no sets, no props, no hi-tech video projections, just bodies in motion. The show was recently performed at the City Festival 2008, which ended on January 26 at the Hong Kong Fringe Club.

On Sunday from 8pm, Mobius Strip's "Being In or Out", a "physical theatre in meditation", will take us on a journey in search of the sense of being that lies within oneself as well as that of the external world. Performer Alex Cheung has more than 10 years of training in martial arts, meditation, percussion, dance, Tai Chi and Polish director Jerzy Growtowski's Poor Theatre, and was a senior member of Taiwan's world acclaimed company U-Theatre. He founded Mobius Strip three years ago to explore cross-discipline creation and collaboration.

The festival's spirit of collaboration persists as Mobius Strip will conduct an open jam inviting artists from various countries and disciplines - dancers, actors, singers, and painters - to create this performance carnival filled with surprises and delight for us. The atmosphere would probably be like going to a jazz bar's jam session. The that's fringe spirit as well - we'll never know what we're going to get unless we show up and open our mind and get ready.

A Piece of Coin will be performed at 8pm tonight and tomorrow at the Bangkok Fringe Festival at the Patravadi Theatre on Soi Wat Rakang. The festival runs from Friday to Sunday until February 17. Tickets are Bt600 (Bt300 for students) for performances in the Theatre in the Garden. Tickets can be purchased at True shops as well as at www.weloveshopping.com. For more information, call (02) 412 7287-8, or see www.patravaditheatre.com.

Pawit  Mahasarinand  

The writer can be contacted at Pawit.M @ chula.ac.th.