Gung-ho newcomers and tireless veterans
Highlights of this year’s Bangkok Theatre Festival
And yet another Bangkok Theatre Festival (BTF) has come and gone, almost in a flash. Since 2002, it’s been the largest performing arts platform and gathering place of gung-ho newcomers and tireless veterans, of students, amateurs and professionals, of classical, folk and experimental performers. One thing about uncurated festivals like the BTF is that you never know what you’re going to get. Theatre critics complain about the lack of quality at the BTF every year, but we manage to find a few shows that surprise and excite us every year as well.
The festival took a big leap this year by collaborating with a new performing arts platform, Bangkok International Performing Arts Meeting (BIPAM), which models itself on events such as Japan’s TPAM (Performing Arts Meeting In Yokohama). In less than a year, BTF and BIPAM’s organisers managed to put together two pre-festival events — Performing Arts Expo by BTF for high school students looking to earn a degree in the performing arts, and Bangkok Theatre Festival Asia Focus, featuring three productions from Thailand and Southeast Asia.
Last week, BIPAM held a series of lectures, presentations and roundtable discussions led by Thai and foreign producers, art managers, artists and academics. The BIPAM showcase brought together six productions from Thailand, Taiwan, India and Switzerland.
The ambitious and visionary young bloods behind BIPAM are trying to push BTF towards a more professional direction by actively tackling issues that have been neglected by the festival for years. Understandably, the financial support is so meagre that making the festival happen every year is already an ambitious undertaking.
And yet, an artist-run festival is not a sustainable model or one that is conducive to growth. Perhaps the BTF needs to start thinking about a more creative and practical management model that will allow the artists to create more and manage less, or not at all.
The way the festival documents and archives performances and festival-related materials has also been dismal. The festival programme in print and online still lacks basic information. Many shows at the BTF provide no information about the production, the company or members of the cast and crew. What’s more troubling is that BTF organisers who are veteran artists don’t see the importance of record-keeping or foster a culture where artists value their own work or have a sense of history.
The BIPAM team is eager to improve the overall management, quality and image of the festival by stepping in as a producer, creating a performing arts archive, and developing a curated portion of the festival.
The BTF is necessary for Thai performing arts and artists. But after 15 years, the festival’s only statement to the Thai public and the international performing arts community shouldn’t only be: “Theatre artists in Thailand exist and are making art.” The image of the BTF has always been one of friendliness, like a harmless and uncontroversial party. That should remain part of the festival.
But art and artists thrive on conflict and tension, not harmony. The BTF is the biggest non-commercial and alternative performing arts platform in Thailand. And it should remain open and not curated, like the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, whose tagline is “Defying the norm since 1947”. If the BTF wants to be more relevant and reach a wider audience, it can’t keep holding up an image of only escapism and entertainment.
As an artistic platform, it needs to respond more specifically and urgently to what’s going on in society. When Thailand has been going through such political instability that has directly and indirectly affected the development of society and the
arts, a theme like “Sharing Moments” for an art platform is not only unimaginative, it also reflects a complacent and docile attitude. An art festival should have a rousing spirit, not a passive and peaceable one.