Went to watch RED DEMON, contemporary Thai Likay from makampom foundation at the Jim Thompson Art Center . This was kind of nice because the last time I watched Likay like 15 years ago ,and I did not pay much attention.
The center can take only 80 audiences. I was the third row on the left side of the stage. All performers are great. They can sing Likay very well, and their acting was superb. Only my negative comment was that they intended to add humor in some emotional scenes too much. The rest was great. It might not be perfect but this one was worth to watch.
After the show end, the performers asked opinions from the audience. They wanted to improve as they were invited to perform at Tokyo Metropolitan Arts Space (TMAS) later this month. Makampom foundation was asked by Hideki Noda, an internationally renowned Japanese director, to adapt his play script , Red Demon for Likay.
Summary of Red Demon
In the Thai version the character Akaoni (Red Demon) becomes Yuk Tua Dang to create this special Thai Likay. The style of the performance has been transformed from traditional Thai Likay to a contemporary version by a Silapathon award winner, Pradit Prasartthong. According to the plot, villagers on an island in the south of Thailand saved the lives of two persons from the sea, Kini and Kmuki. The villagers fed Kini with shark-fin soup to help with her recovery. The soup seemed strange to Kini and she asked if she it was really shark-fin soup. The villagers confirmed it was, but she could tell from the taste of the soup that something was wrong. The soup reminded her of her ordeal in the sea. Suddenly she realized what had really happened, and she ran away to jump off a cliff to her death. Originally Kmuki, Kini, and another friend—Puglann had met Red Demon and had become very good friends. The villagers refused to accept this and tried to get rid of Red Demon. All four of friends finally left the village by boat. Eventually Kini lost consciousness due to lack of food and water. Then the Red Demon disappeared. In fact, Kmuki and Puglann had eaten the meat of their friend who had disappeared to survive and fed it to Kini so she would regain her strength. They lied to Kini telling her that the meat was shark fin. What makes the story interesting are the characters and many symbolic gestures and speeches presented to the audience to promote morale awareness of human values?
