Renegotiate the past, or can you?

Once in a brief  while, drama-makers turn to foreign classic and contemporary masterpieces, and try to adapt them so they communicate the playwrights' universal and timeless messages to local audiences.

A few decades ago, among the most highly regarded Thai translators and adaptors of European and American plays were such masters as Sodsai Pantoomkomol, Mattani Rutnin Mojdara and Janaprakal Chandruang. In recent years, one of the most successful of the lot is veteran director, writer and acting coach Damkerng Thitapiyasak.

His latest play, "Breaking the Surface", was a highly challenging task. He cooked three dramatic ingredients into one delicious dish - famous American Olympic gold medallist Greg Louganis's autobiography of the same title; Damkerng's play adaptation of it for a class at Middlesex University (in England) in 1996, in which he put the diver's story in the structure of Swiss playwright Max Frisch's "Biography: A Game" (1967); and Janejira Seriyothin and Parnrut Kritchanchai's new translation of the 1984 version of the Swiss play.

The result of this exercise in script deconstruction was what Damkerng called "a psychological comedy" and "a play within a play" - or what this reviewer calls "a frequently thought-provoking, occasionally heartfelt and thoroughly delightful comedy, though a little overstuffed with themes". 

HIV-positive, Thai national-team diver Kantachat had chances to amend his past, particularly an important turning point being his encounter with Top, a real estate businessman with whom he had a relationship for six years.

Although important incidents in Kantachat's life were repeated for him to decide how to alter their outcomes, they did not look or sound the same and were not predictable.

Credit is due for the professional cast, led by Grisana Punpeng and Nophand Boonyai, whose portrayal of central characters Kantachat and Top were realistic, making their relationship credible and touching. Adding much comedy was Sugame Kanchanakuntikul playing the stage director who was always ready to interrupt and "restage" Kantareal-life events, often looking and sounding like Kantachat's psychiatrist.

Most dominant among the skilful six-member supporting cast was Kriengkrai Fookasem who performed a wide variety of roles - from playing Kan's gay mountain-tribesman university friend to a Singaporean diving coach, a homophobic doctor and Top's new boyfriend. 

The play asks whether we know what we would do differently if we were given an opportunity to change part of our past - for example, to erase (the memory of) "that not-so-easily-forgotten someone".

Toward the end, this reviewer was reminded of a song from the Broadway musical "Wicked", penned by Stephen Schwartz: "I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason, bringing something we must learn and we are led to those who help us most to grow if we let them and we help them in return. Now, I don't know if I believe that that is true, but I know I'm who I am today because I knew you."