Small venues packed with drama

Crescent Moon space saw ‘Love Invisible’ staged with thespians Kriengkrai Fukasem and Pavinee Samakkabutr.

With the media hype created by an enormous marketing budget, the public knows what has been happening on the Rachadalai stage, and people can easily count off the number of productions.

What many of us may not know, thanks in part to less interest from the media, is that the shophouse right behind the traffic-police booth at Saphan Kwai intersection, otherwise known as Makhampom Studio, has hosted 18 small-scale theatre productions - 12 of which were by Makhampom. Similarly, the innermost room at Pridi Banomyong Institute in Soi Thong Lor, now known as Crescent Moon Space, has been the venue for 15 small productions, two of which were in-house productions.

Even with such prolificity and variety, these two venues are currently running in bright-red figures. Sponsorship and donation have been very little or nil.

Recently, Makhampom celebrated the studio's first anniversary with the revival of a social satire, "Saphan Kwai My Love". Despite its name, referring to the community that faced bombing on New Year's Eve last year, the dramatic situations in Pradit Prasartthong's four-character comedy subtly represent what is happening in Bangkok amid the fear caused by the political turmoil.

Apart from the praiseworthy script, the one-act play featured stellar ensemble performance by four actors who transformed themselves into the characters. In the end, a security guard whose wife had run away with a man, a clothing factory-worker whose heart was broken by a married taxi-motorcyclist, a Chinese goldshop-owner's wife who was bored by her daily routine and a pizza-delivery man carrying a mysterious box, entertained and inspired us to persist regardless of life's hardships.

Crescent Moon Space too staged an original Thai drama "Love Invisible" - the Thai title was "Rak Bang Ta". Penned by Kavinthorn Saengsakorn and Sineenadh Keitprapai, the one-act play aims at showing the young and heartbroken that there is more to love and life than meets the eye and that suicide should never be an easy way out.

Despite its substantial subject matter, smart use of stage space and multimedia, in addition to commendable acting by two very hard-working professional stage thespians of this time - Kriengkrai Fukasem and Pavinee Samakkabutr - the dialogues went on a little too long and the overall direction rode on the sentimental track a little too long for the audience to be moved. In the beginning, we saw a recording of a woman walking up a staircase, and some knew where she was headed to and, unfortunately, that mood stayed until the end.

At Crescent Moon Space, Damkerng Thitapiyasak is staging 'Waiting for GD'. Visit: www.CrecentMoonTheatre.com