Is this drama?
What is drama?
What is a performance?
What is a performer?
What is an audience?
What is theatre?
What is art?
It is not new to challenge the concept
of “drama”/”theatre”/”performance”. Perhaps, it is just uncommon to see a piece
of drama/theatre being showcased in a “non-dramatic”, “non-linear” and
“non-narrative” form in Singapore. The concept of “happenings as theatre” as
coined by Allan Kaprow, the notion of theatre as the meeting of a doer/doers
and an observer/observers put forth by Jerzy Grotowski, and the idea of “ritual
as theatre” which is studied widely by Eugenio Barba and Richard Schechner are
widely discussed in Theatre Anthropology and Performance Studies.
Liu Xiaoyi, in M1 Chinese Theatre Festival presented by The
Theatre Practice, questioned the notion of theatre and role of an audience, and
explored the spaces between real life and theatre, performance and non-performance
in the piece Fluid.
Actors Li Xie and Lim Chin Huat, were performing their daily tasks
and movement respectively on stage, most of the time oblivion to the presence
of the audience. One was in one’s world of recollections of the story of a man Lao Wang; another was moving without uttering a word. They co-existed in the same
space, but did not directly interact with one another.
As an audience, at times, I felt uneasy, as I felt that I was
intruding into the private lives of two individuals who treated their daily
tasks with utmost importance. At the same time, I was aware that I was at the
audience seating, observing the acts of these two people. The actors performed
apparently simple actions and movements on stage, which were not “simple”. They
were so committed in every of their impulse and movement that every act became
a sacred act. By “sacred”, I mean that they treated every second of their life
on stage with high awareness, respect and belief, to the extent that I totally
believed in their act.
Such “acting without acting” is not an easy job. The actors have
to handle the delicate line between acting and not acting. To deliver this,
they have to possess the sincerity in delivering what is beyond the forms. The
strong foundation of acting skills are prerequisites before such convincing
acting which is quotidian and natural could be conveyed. This reminded me of
Chapter 48 of Lao Zi’s Tao Te Ching:
Less and less is done
Until non-action is achieved.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.
Conceptually, interesting paradoxes were used to create the
absurdity and surrealism of the piece. The Chinese title of “Fluid”, translated
literally is “water flowing upstream” (水往上流). In
the piece, the character Lao Wang had to move downwards in order to reach the
top of the hill, and climb upwards in order to reach the foot of the hill.
Eventually, the audience had to step down in order to be up on the stage. Thus, while the piece is seemingly about the
“nothingness” of life, it is about life itself and complexities of life that are
shown through the paradoxes presented in the simple story of Lao Wang who spent
more than a thousand dollars on a 6-day absurd theatre workshop by a well-known
master. The workshop though abstract and clueless to Lao Wang, pointed him to
realize the phenomenon of nature.
In the end, to me, Fluid
is about flowing back through time, traveling upstream to our source, and getting
in touch with what has been forgotten, lost and hidden. Yes, we can often flow
forward, go downstream, and be with the masses. However, it could be the hidden
source of energy that carries us through the challenges of life.
6 more shows on 6 July Sun & 12 July Sat 3:00 PM, 9-12 July 8:00 PM
Venue:
LASALLE College of the Arts, Flexible Performance Space
Tickets:
$38 (excluding booking fee)
Tickets are available at http://www.sistic.com.sg/events/fluid0714
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