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Of all the troupes performing at the Mekong Arts and Media Festival two weeks ago in Phnom Penh, one of the audience's favourites was Kabong Lao, a nine-year-old object theatre company based in Vientiane. Either performing indoors at the Chaktomuk Hall or outdoors near the Mekong riverbank, their short comic skits, with no spoken dialogue, broke all cultural barriers, drove the imagination, stirred wild laughter and drew loud applause.

Using ordinary second-hand objects like pakhoma, coconut shells, bottle caps, pie pans, baskets, flip-flops and brooms, Kabong Lao is proof that good theatre doesn't necessarily cost a lot of money to produce - just lots of creativity and an adventurous spirit of experimentation.

What matters more is how performers put these objects together to create. Oftentimes, three performers are in charge of one large puppet.

The troupe's artistic director Leuthmany Insisiengmay, or Lung Loet as Thai artists love to call him, received a grant from the French government in the mid-1990s to study le theatre d'objets with the Turak Theatre in Lyon. In 2000, with assistance from French artist Michel Laubu, Lung Loet founded Kabong Lao, performing new hybrid art called hun kabong.

"At the beginning, about 100 people signed up. From that we selected 50 and then five of them were sent to Lyon to be trained. It was difficult to get support from the government because they didn't quite understand why we needed used objects, instead of nice-looking new ones."

Today, the troupe has about 15 members, three of whom get a full-time monthly salary from Laos' Information and Culture Ministry while others are hired project-by-project.

"Major support comes from NGOs, mostly from Sweden and Japan, who commission performances for various issues - children, the environment, women's rights and Aids," Lung Loet says. "When time permits, we teach our audiences, young or not-so-young, how to create object theatre."

As for the future, Lung Loet, who always performs with the troupe despite his age, said, "We'd like to perform, with some simple dialogues, longer stories."

Some members of Kabong Lao are performing in the opening ceremony of the 25th SEA Games in Vientiane today, while four members, including Lung Loet, are coming to the International Street Show in Bangkok, which starts today. It's the first time that the troupe will perform for the Bangkok public after a private show for an Asean meeting a few years ago.

Next year, the troupe has another major task - co-hosting the Mekong Performing Arts Laboratory with the Philippine Educational Theatre Association and Save the Children, welcoming many theatre companies and children to the Lao capital.

The writer's travel to Mekong Arts and Media Festival is supported by Philippine Educational Theatre Association.

   OBJECTIVES

- Kabong Lao will perform three times daily at the International Street Show in Lumpini Park. Today, they'll be on stage three near the clock tower, on Friday at stage 10 near Lan Tawan Yim on Saturday on stage one in front of Sala Chalerm Phra Kiet and on Sunday at stage 12, close to Sala Daeng intersection entrance. Visit www.|BangkokStreetShow.com.