Setting the stage

Setting the stage

By Chit Su Wai   |   Sunday, 06 April 2014

The Thukhuma Khayeethe (Artistic Traveller) theatre group and New York City's Bond Street Theatre will present Volpone, by the 16th-century playwright Ben Jonson, this October in Yangon and Mandalay. The production will bring together aspects of traditional Myanmar and Western theatre in a free performance that raises subjects previously taboo under the military regime.

"Now that Myanmar is opening a little, we are wondering how the public will accept new forms of theatre, and especially how they will react to the topics presented in a modern play," said Joanna Sherman, founder of Bond Street Theatre and advocate for the role of the arts in peace-building at the United Nationals, the National Council on Women and other international organisations.

The company's purpose is to organise theatre projects in regions that have suffered political and social conflict, such as Afghanistan, Kosovo and Haiti. Its mission is to use theatre to explore difficult issues and raise discussion about problems affecting the local community.

Volpone (meaning "sly fox" in Italian) is about a rich man who pretends to be on his deathbed in order to evaluate the potential inheritors – a lawyer, a merchant and a veteran – of his property. In this context, the comedy will raise some of the serious problems of social status and wealth that Myanmar people face in daily life.

The players will combine the features of pwe, the Myanmar traditional theatrical style, with the features of commedia dell'arte, in which actors play fixed social "types". Both traditions involve physical theatre. The difference is that pwe uses singing, dancing, comedy and melodrama in combination while commedia dell'arte focuses on character play.

"At the beginning of our work on Volpone, we suggested that the play be a combination of Western and Eastern theatrical styles. We put this idea aside for awhile, but soon we were researching the old classic pwe performances, the life and work of Po Sein [founder of the famous performance group Sein Maha Thabin and the "father" of modern 20th-century Myanmar theatre], and watching many hours of pwe, both live and on video," Sherman said. "Now we have combined features, the results will be interesting to everyone. It's a unique fusion and style."

Ko Thila Min, co-founder of Thukhuma Khayeethe, said, "We need to collaborate with international organisations as Myanmar artists. There are many advantages, but it's also difficult. We value our traditional style and they value theirs. So, we both have to shift our standards."

Sherman said that collaboration is meant to be a general exchange of ideas and shared trainings, and she thought the theatre groups could work together on some contemporary ideas to expand the players' abilities, even if they do not perform based on the ideas right away. The point is to share techniques, she said.

Thukhuma Khayeethe, a troupe of usually six members, was founded in 2009 by Ko Soe Myat Thu, a language teacher from the Institute Français, and Ko Thila Min, an art teacher from the American Center. They were interested in theatre, Ko Thila Min said, because they saw strong potential in the medium to communicate knowledge and ideas to the public and provide inexpensive entertainment. "We can touch the audience directly," he said.

Many artists and performers said that under the military regime there was no contemporary theatre in Myanmar.

But after the Second World War, Myanmar traditional theatre enjoyed an excellent reputation in Yangon and Mandalay. Before film, theatre was the main entertainment. After 1960, censorship took a big toll on theatre production, and there was no chance to develop contemporary work.

When Thukhuma Khayeethe started, they couldn't perform plays that raised serious political or social questions. What was allowed was using theatre for education. The group created plays about good hygiene, for example, and healing after the trauma of Cyclone Nargis in 2008. They travelled around the country to perform for children in monastic schools and orphanages in Mandalay, Yangon, and Mon and Kayin states.

The members participated in a clown summer camp in Sweden in 2010 and 2011, made a study tour of Thailand in 2010, and attend theatre workshops in Myanmar whenever possible.

"Our members are now semi-professional," Ko Thila Min said. "We started as amateurs, and then we went to many trainings and workshops over the course of four years."

They tend not to use many words in their plays and work from the motto "your body is your instrument".

"In our country, our thinking skills were blocked. We want the audiences to think more when we perform," Ko Thila Min said.

Volpone will be presented at the National Theatre in October. Tickets will be free.

http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/setting-the-stage/