[Theatre] A Beautiful Chance Encounter of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella on an Operating Table

28 Mrach 2014

“A Beautiful Chance Encounter of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella on an Operating Table”---Beauty from Inelegance

Country: Singapore

Company: Teater Ekamatra

Director: Irfan Kasban

Cast: Farah Ong, Hanz Medina, Lynn Yang, Nabilah Said, Nur Khairina, Rohana Akhbar, Ruby Jayaseelan, Tan Jia Yee, Vignesh Singh, Zul Mahmod

Location I watched: an open field on Victoria St. near Bugis MRT station

  

I went to a performance by Teater Ekamatra at an open field in Bugis. The performance was presented for 3 days and it started at 8 pm every night. It was free. During this period, a two-story building with steel framework suddenly appeared at the part of a field in the centre of Bugis town. It was the performance site. Around the building, vinyl sheets for the audience were laid down, and around the sheets, fences were set up, surrounding them. At the building, about 10 performers were using sets or prepared properties and showing each movement freely. The sets and properties were clothes, stones, a chair or a mirror, made by ordinary things. The audience around the building could watch them freely from anywhere. There did not seem to be any story or a performance with a flow on the whole. So, the audience could come or leave anytime. The running time was for about 90 minutes in total. I came there 10 minutes late and stayed until the end of the performance.

I was bitten by mosquitoes, so it was quite tough to stay there. But I did not give up. Because the performance was something that made me happy even at a glance. Such a raw unrefined performance I can see in Singapore! (I am praising, of course.)

Each of the actors played a character and seemed to be performing freely as they wanted to. They were performing on their own, regardless of other characters, but sometimes interacting with the others. A man is putting clothes on the back of a chair and holding it like a child or a lover. A woman is ringing little bells tied up on her feet and parading like a queen, making an old cloth flutter like a gown. A character is playing on a swing, using cloth tied to the steel framework like a hammock. There is someone splashing water from a pail. A character who arrives from the opposite end of the building with a travel bag, starts cleaning up the mess on the ground to a shopping trolley. A character is walking around thrusting a mirror in the faces of the audience. A character ties her hands with a string held by another character. And they both started walking around the building, etc.

Is this a moving tableau vivant for 90 minutes? Or a metaphor of a mental hospital? Or a parody of our daily life, human history from ancient times to the present, or theatre arts?

This performance’s title is taken from a phrase of poetry by Comte de Lautréamont, who had an influence on Surrealism. I felt that the main purpose of this performance was to find unexpected beauty and stimulation from a vulgar and unreasonably messy surface. Especially in theatre arts, beauty that moves the audience does not always arise from something stylish, fine or clean. When someone is expressing something, exposing his/her body in front of another, the unrefined touch and energy fresh from the body can strike him/her watching it, and beauty is also created from there, I think. That is why I was pleased that the performance ambience was unrefined and cheap. For that, or precisely for that reason, a moment is quite impressive and outstandingly beautiful without any logical thinking.

In the audience, there were a few people bringing a bottle of wine and drinking merrily. Since we did not have to concentrate on the performance storyline or meaning, it was possible to relax and watch it casually. I thought, we should not think too hard about this performance. Although I could have left halfway through the performance, I stayed as I was curious how it would end. It did end when the director, Irfan Kasban appeared and tapped each actor on the shoulder, signaling to stop their performance. The actors put on a hat similar to a bamboo strainer with a screen covering their face, and walked out of the venue one by one. Maybe they walked back to their company office near Arab Street. By the way, the publicity flier of this performance had a design using only letters. It is quite beautiful, like the Russian Avant-Garde design. (7 April 2014)

Click here to read the Japanese review