A spectacle that packs a punch
Ekachai Uekrongtham returns to Singapore theatre with less talk and more action
by Mayo Martin
04:45 AM Sep 05, 2011
HAS Ekachai Uekrongtham turned his back on Singapore theatre?
After all, it's been a long time since local theatre scene's adopted Thai son has actually helmed a homegrown play. These days, the founding artistic director of Action Theatre has been seemingly content letting others direct his company's shows as he sits comfortably in the back as producer.
When he does decide to direct, it's been either for movies like Pleasure Factory, The Coffin and The Wedding Game - or musicals that are in an alien language that we don't get the chance to see, like 2010's Thai musical Breathe.
So it's a pleasant surprise to learn that the man who directed Chang & Eng and Ka-Ra-You-OK? is back in these shores helming a new production. It's a non-verbal theatrical spectacle that's set to combine the physical flair of Muay Thai or Thai kickboxing and street dancing.
After making its premiere in Bangkok a couple of months ago, Boxing Boys! hits our shores next month courtesy of MediaCorp VizPro International. It will feature a cast of 17, which includes real-life kickboxing champs and street dancers, and will incorporate Thai elements such as Khon (traditional masked dance), Likay (folk dance) and Nang Yai (shadow puppetry) - all tied together by a story about love and friendship.
No talk, action only
Speaking on the phone from Bangkok - while eating mangoes, apparently - Uekrongtham said he's been shuttling back and forth between Singapore and Thailand more often than we thought.
"But I guess I haven't been directing anything so people don't hear much from me," he said, adding that he might possibly be doing another Singapore project. "I'm looking for a play or theatre piece that I would like to work on. I think I've found it but I can't talk about it just yet."
With a concentration of movies in recent years, such as The Coffin (2007) and Pleasure Factory (2008), Uekrongtham's last stage production was Breathe (2010), the first time he'd done a Thai musical.
"I had never done a theatre piece in Thai before and I liked the process. It was really great fun for me," he shared.
Breathe's box office success would have paved the way for more Thai musical offers. But he instead decided to do a non-verbal theatrical production instead. According to Uekrongtham, one of the catalysts for Boxing Boys! was actually his feature film debut, Beautiful Boxer, a 2003 drama about transsexual Muay Thai boxer, Parinya Kiatbusaba.
"I don't think I would have been able to do Boxing Boys! if I had not done Beautiful Boxer," he explained. "It forced me to understand Thai kickboxing - and you have to do a lot of homework. Not just the craft but also the life of kickboxers and how the martial artist is perceived in its own country.
"I still had to do a lot of research (for Boxing Boys!) but not as much as I needed to do when starting something completely new," he added.
But the roots for Boxing Boys! go back even further to the early days of Action Theatre, when they had their 42 Theatre Festival. Back then, he had conceived of a piece combining ballet and gong fu with choreographer dancer Jeffrey Tan, wushu champ Picasso Tan and Chang & Eng composer, the late Ken Low.
"I was quite interested to do a non-verbal piece then. I thought martial arts was very intriguing - it's very violent yet it's artful and genteel. It's got a lot of potential for conflicts," he said.
All flash, no substance?
Boxing Boys! comes at the heels of other similar productions to hit Singapore shores, like Art Of Drum, Jump, Stomp and Riverdance. But while these have been commercially popular, there are also critics that decry these big-budget shows are empty spectacle - where the storyline plays second (or third) fiddle to the action onstage.
"In the past decade, a lot of these have sprung up and have become very popular around the world because of their universality - they don't need surtitles and they could play to people of all races and cultures. It's really the challenge of trying to communicate a story without relying on a dialogue," said Uekrongtham.
But he doesn't think of non-verbal theatre as artistically weaker than your "proper" musical or play. Pointing out its links to the tradition of mime, he considers Boxing Boys! and its non-verbal lineage to be the most challenging he's done.
"It's not like doing the movie where you have a storyboard, et cetera. There's a lot of improvisation on this one," he said, adding that he also had to write a dialogue for Boxing Boys! but didn't exactly use it.
"What I have tried to do with Boxing Boys! is to attempt to tell a story and give more emotion and conflict - I treated it like a normal play and didn't want (people to think) that just because it's non-verbal, it's completely blank," he said.
For his next projects, it's the film buffs who'll be stoked. Uekrongtham revealed he's been asked to be a Thai romantic comedy on singlehood ("it's such an in thing now!") and has finished a screenplay to be shot in Singapore. And next month, he'll be doing an "unusual film project with a Thai and a Taiwanese superstar", he said.
As for his efforts on the theatrical stage? He's still in the process of reading scripts.
"I miss my theatre friends here. It'd be nice to find something I can work with them again," he said.
One theatrical work has been perennially been on everyone's mind though - a restaging of Chang & Eng.
For the longest time, Uekrongtham has shied away from that possibility because of the loss of friend and collaborator Low, who passed away in July last year.
"I felt that I could never do it again when he passed away. I was thinking: 'How am I ever going to do that again'? I've never done that show without him," he said. "But I (also) thought maybe that could be the reason for me to do it again. Time has passed and we still remember him. Maybe that's a good reason. I would like to do it again for sure."
But will it ever return to the stage? Uekrongtham was coy with his answer.
"I think it will come back at some point - maybe sooner rather than later."
Boxing Boys runs from Oct 28 to 30, 8pm, Esplanade Theatre. With 3pm weekend matinees. Tickets at S$38 to S$88 from Sistic.