• 
• 

Published on October 25, 2007

Classical Thai dancer and choreographer Pichet Klunchun and French performance artist Jerome Bel have both been called enfants terribles by their respective nations. Not surprising then that their first collaboration, an intercultural performance dialogue entitled "Pichet Klunchun and Myself", drew festival crowds across Asia and Europe and garnered rave reviews.

Their second collaboration, "About Khon" - which is developed from "Myself" and Pichet's solo work "I Am a Demon" - had its world premiere last Friday night as part of Singapore's "da:ns 2007" festival's "Shift" series, a roster of programmes that aims to "challenge popular notions of dance".

The performance revealed what this frequently overlooked classical Thai performing art means today.

Esplanade Recital Studio, an intimate semi-circle seating an audience of about 150, was just right for the performance, providing all spectators with a great view.

Just before the 9.30pm scheduled curtain-up, the stage was empty save for an iBook computer with an extension chord plugged into a power outlet.

Then, 35-year-old Pichet and 43-year-old Bel entered, both dressed in casual outfits. Against a stark black curtain, Pichet sat down stage left, and Jerome seated himself behind his iBook, looking as if he was about to read his interview questions from the screen.

And so it was: The French "cultural tourist", or "arts writer", launched into a series of questions for the Thai performer, beginning with "What is your name?" and "What do you do for a living?"

Before long, the informal yet informative interview led to the revelations that khon nowadays is mostly performed for tourists in restaurants and hotels and that Thai people don't really understand the art of their traditional masked dance, even though most of us study the Ramakien epic on which it is based in secondary school and know the story reasonably well.

Audience members then discovered that, traditionally, no khon characters ever die on stage.

"He didn't appear again so the audience knew he had died," said Pichet, explaining the theatrical convention that signifies a death and confirming that khon audiences do enjoy exercising their imaginations.

Frequently, Pichet stood up to physically demonstrate what he had just expressed verbally. At one point he showed Bel a series of movements associated with the four character-types of khon - phra (male lead), nang (female lead), yak (demon), and ling (monkey).

At first, it was hard to differentiate one from the other. Then Pichet broke the movements into four parts and both Bel and the spectators were able to observe the small but subtle differences. More importantly perhaps, we all learned to look not just at the beautiful wrapping but more closely at the intricate details within. It's a concept that can easily be applied on a daily basis to what we do and who we meet.

Although the topics of discussion were always serious and insightful, "About Khon" also had its humorous moments. For example, when Pichet said that the Ramakien contained many wars during which a good number of major characters died, and added that it would take about a week to perform the whole story, a ripple of laughter ran through the auditorium.

Both Pichit and Bel gave flawless performances, with Bel responding to Pichet's answers as if he were hearing about khon for the very first time and not, as was the case, after a multitude of performances of "Pichet Klunchun and Myself".

In Pichet's case, it was a lack of fluency in English that gave his answers greater sincerity.

The facts and observations about khon were showcased by the Life Work Company of dancers for the finale, a 20-minute battle scene to canned music. This was, however, a minor letdown, as the overall energy did not live up to the excitement and anticipation built up over the preceding 50 minutes by Bel and Pichet's conversation.

While the performance ended with an unidentified female character walking very slowly and deliberately across the back of the stage, mourning Totsakan's death, "About Khon" - notwithstanding minor flaws that have to be ironed out towards the end - served as a re-birth of khon for an international audience.

In fact, when "About Khon" had its Bangkok premiere two nights later at MR Kukrit Pramoj's Heritage House, Pichet had already made one significant change. This time, the Life Work Company dancers performed in T-shirts and jong kraben (pantaloons), instead of the elaborately designed and intricately made khon costumes and masks worn in Singapore. Hence, the Bangkok audience was able to concentrate more on - and certainly better appreciated - the dance movements that are the core of khon, the meanings of which were discussed earlier in Pichet's interview with Bel.

If you need convincing that in contemporary performing arts "less is more", then "About Khon" not only proves that adage but does much to demystify a very stylised form of traditional Thai dance.

For more information, visit Pklifework.com.

The writer travelled to the "da:ns 2007" festival courtesy of The Esplanade Co Ltd. He can be contacted at Pawit.M@chula.ac.th.

Pawit Mahasarinand

 The Nation