There was
a time, back in the 80s and early 90s, when theatre in Singapore wasn't
about imported blockbusters or multimedia gimmicks. Back then, we were
still busy exploring ourselves, defining ourselves as a community of
people of different languages, cultures and classes - simply portraying
how we can and do live together in both harmony and conflict. It was
an age of seminal works whose value we're only beginning to recognise,
canonising them as part of our dramatic heritage: Army
Daze, Mama Looking for Her Cat, Off Centre.
Watching Mobile at this year's Arts Fest, it feels as if
those days are back - only now, those old issues of racism and classism
are being discussed on a continental scale. Focused on examining the
experiences of migrant workers, this play ends up shining light into
the new power dynamics of contemporary Asia, a world of Japanese businessmen,
Thai sex workers and Filipina maids - all caught in the disorienting
circumstance of being displaced for the sake of labour needs.
Mobile attains a level of intimacy and relevance that's rare
in international arts projects, emerging as an exceptionally powerful
work of drama, both broad in its scope and deep emotionally. This isn't
to say that the play is flawless - far from it. The framing story of
two delegates at an NGO conference succeeded in articulating some problems
in the agitation for migrant workers' rights, but ultimately came across
as didactic, with flat characterisation. The play's finale was similarly
a disappointment: the directors were unable to round off their ambitious
project with anything more than three actresses linked by a white strip
of cloth, laughing hysterically.
These faults were, however, redeemed by the remaining scenes of the
play, which were uniformly excellent. Based on true-life accounts gathered
through interviews in shelters, these stories related the desperate
situations in which people find themselves during overseas work, and
they consistently contained more twists and turns than we might expect.
For example, a Filipino activist-turned-hotel magnate is haunted by
the memory of a Thai fisherman, who trusted the magnate to make him
rich - but, as the magnate's ethnic-jewelry-toting wife protests, it
was impossible to invest in the natives when the fishermen themselves
refused to adapt to their new roles as hotel staff. Who are the victims
and who the villains in this play? When perspectives from both sides
are presented, the answers that emerge are never simple.
It's an interesting strategy, this, to place the dilemmas of the rich
on equal footing with the suffering of the poor - a distorted view of
the world's inequalities, but a necessary one, if we're to bring freshness
and interest to the topic, engaging an Asian theatre-going audience
with its own implication in a pattern of global injustice. It's also
quite crucial that no mention of Europe, America or Australasia occurs
in this play, as it's now far too convenient to scapegoat the West for
economic exploitation. This new focus forces us to examine ourselves
in the context of the oppressor rather than to mistakenly adopt the
self-righteous label of the oppressed.
Outside the realm of power relations, the play also becomes the site
for a new understanding of cultural encounters. It draws fully on the
resources of a production team with members from Singapore, Thailand,
the Philippines and Japan, with two directors, four writers and a workshop
process that allowed for high levels of interaction and discussion.
Having participated in mutual arts exchanges over the past two years,
the theatre practitioners were able to forge themselves into a strong
co-operative team, making the most of their differences onstage. Hence,
a harsh, stark Japanese aesthetic became evident in scenes directed
by Tatsuo Kaneshita, while concentration on human relationships remained
the focus in scenes directed by Alvin Tan. Likewise, the cast was simply
stellar, with each member displaying the best of his or her talents
in multiple roles. In particular, I'll remember Tetsuya Kataoka's breakdown
from being an inflexible Japanese husband. Initially liberated by his
new job in the Philippines, he ultimately became desperate and crazed,
stripping off his yuppie clothing to reach the same level as his indigenous
pole-dancer girlfriend. I'll also have to mention Jarunun Phantachat,
who played a Thai masseuse with a stridency and power befitting a performance
of Medea, with dialogue in all of the play's three languages: Thai,
English and Japanese.
I'm particularly glad that in this play, The Necessary Stage was able
to move away from its habit of relying on video projections for spectacle
in major productions -this aesthetic of creating multiple layers of
signifiers has proved alienating to me in previous productions like
godeatgod.
Here, although one such projection was used, it was seamlessly integrated
into a versatile set, composed of movable container parts.
Also typical of TNS productions was a scene of high absurdist farce
- featured here as a play within a play, ostensibly put up as a pan-Asian,
not-for-profit political show by volunteers at an NGO conference. This
gigglesome little number, entitled "Eleanor's Nightmare", involved actors
dancing and singing multilingual folk songs to campily dramatise a Filipina
domestic worker's dilemma over whether or not to abort her child so
she can continue to work in Singapore. "Eleanor's Nightmare" was the
team's acknowledgment of how an international play about migrant workers'
rights should not be done - in fact, the reason I didn't snap up a reviewer's
ticket to this show was because I feared that the production would either
be boring or turn out as a one-sided, semi-clichéd, feel-good,
multicultural mess. Plays about the oppression of migrant workers have
a tendency to come out inadequate or silly - consider Henry Ong's overwritten
Fabric,
Stella Kon's unbelievable Feeding the Armadillo, and TheatreWorks's
drily conceptual Workhorse Afloat.
The Necessary Stage has a long history of creating theatre based on
social issues, from its 1987 forum theatre treatment of interracial
love in Mixed
Blessings to its dramatisation of first-hand disaster accounts
last year in Boxing
Day: The Tsunami Project, which featured Southeast Asian actors
who were to become part of the present international collaborative team.
Nor is TNS only extending its international reach among the participant
nations of Mobile - last year also saw the cross-Causeway production,
Separation
40, which discussed Singapore-Malaysia relations with a cast,
script and direction based in both countries. This current project,
however, is especially important, being the culmination of efforts between
artists of four countries. I'm adamant that it should be seen by people
in more cities than just Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, which viewed it
during this run.
In retrospect, one must give kudos to Ong Keng Sen for first envisioning
a pan-Asian theatre with his 1997 cross-cultural project Lear.
But one must also be grateful for our subsequent impetus to progress
from his obsession with antique Asian art forms to also embrace contemporary
society, investigating how the communities around us are changing right
now. Mobile thus joins TheatreWorks's Geisha
and W!ld Rice's Second
Link in the creation of a new Singapore theatre, one that recognises
our contingent situation in the complex, mutant landscape of a developing
continent. Though we're small, we can have a part in investigating and
defining the culture of today's Asia - just as we did with our own national
culture, not so long ago. |
"The play's new focus forces us to examine ourselves in the context
of the oppressor rather than to mistakenly adopt the self-righteous
label of the oppressed"
Credits
Concept: Alvin Tan
Directors: Alvin Tan and Tatsuo Kaneshita
Head Writer: Haresh Sharma
Writers: Narumol Thammapruksa, Rody Vera and Tatsuo
Kaneshita
Set Designer: Vincent Lim
Multimedia Designer: Brian Gothong Tan
Lighting Designer: Naomi 'Shoko' Matsumoto
Associate Lighting Designer: James Tan
Choreographer: Kuo Jing Hong
Production and Technical Manager: Isis Koh
Stage Manager: Elnie Suhumastri Bte Mashari
Performers: Reina Kakudate, Tatsuya Kataoka, Rody Vera,
Mailes Kanapi, Jarunun Phantachat, Narumol Thammapruksa, Pradit Prasartthong,
Aidli Alin Mosbit, and Chua Enlai
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