Dancing To Nirvana

It was a complete leap of faith on my part to go watch Dancing To Nirvana. After 10 minutes, I realized with a measure of disappointment that this production was more of a play than a dance.

It wasn't the 'dance theatre' per se as billed in the not-so-good marketing of the production. If it were meant to be a dance, it'd have been of quite a terrible quality. I suspected many 'farang' in the audience shared my feelings.

But as a play, it was deeply reflective. So I adjusted my expectations and saw it as more of a theatre production. Settled into the out-of-place red plastic chair with the programme booklet opened to the section of the translated script.

Despite the overwhelmingly strong theme of Buddhism, the point of enlightainment vs nirvana, I didn't view Dancing To Nirvana in its religious light only. Obviously I didn't understand Pali and the selected chants. I didn't comprehend the Five Precepts of Buddhism or Pratītyasamutpāda (Dependent Origination). But I understood the facial expressions. Importantly, I understood the language spoken. The man read the translated script as the play progressed and he caught almost all the gist of it.

There was a universal theme of finding spiritual peace amidst the tangible desires of this material world. There was tremendous artistic focus. The stark colors of red, white and black were symbolic on so many different levels, bringing the philosophical themes to life in a way familiar to many Thai Buddhists.

Many portions of the play were meant to shift into different times and locations. Even though this venue was said to be smaller than their usual, I thought that the set designer needed to adapt a little more and re-design the layout to bring out these shifts even more clearly. If there were English surtitles, the 'farang' and others who didn't understand Thai and mistakenly thought it was a dance, could have been pleasantly surprised by what really was a pretty good play.

Then, the man poked me in the arm. I realized that the English script in the programme booklet stopped 10 minutes before the show. So I translated for him. But it didn't really matter. By then, he already understood the context and grasped the themes. The dramatic irony at the ending wasn't lost on either of us. We left the show rather pleased with an evening well spent.