剧评：pass·ages
如何面对一朵花的凋零—— 观“pass·ages”
开场时，一位角色（Nirmala Seshadri饰）在台上邀请大家闭起双眼，在她的引导下，一起进行静观练习，内观肉身，沉浸在对肉身的觉知…… 然后她话锋一转，引领观众注视体内的细菌，那些使得肉身衰老、衰败的细菌，并指引大家将这些可恶细菌从体内排除掉，甚至传给身边观众也无妨，让众人顿时失笑。
“pass·ages”便是从对病痛、衰老的厌恶，开启了它的故事。剧中有四条故事主线，剧组并非逐一地呈现故事，碎片化的叙事，打破了时间的规律，让观众看不同的故事时，可以有慢慢厘清剧情顺序的乐趣。
该剧简介说，这部戏是关于四个女性对自身衰老的挣扎。在疗养院的Ching（Dana Lam饰）与新来的看护发生摩擦，无法接受年华老去的自己。慢慢老去的婆罗多舞舞者Shivani（Nirmala Seshadri饰）希望转换观众对年老舞者的观念，想证明自己即使老去，依然可以跳出动人的婆罗多舞。正处年华盛放的Millie（Shanice Stanislaus饰）正准备A水准以及大考以后的生活，却骤然发现自己患上绝症。不孕的Ogy（Suhaili Safari饰）接受试管内受精（IVF），回忆起自童年来因为自己肉身的种种而产生的恐慌。
我喜欢这部剧从“女性”与“衰老”出发，随后延伸出更宏大的主题：病痛、死亡、以及社会如何对待女性肉体。例如剧中的Ogy 因不孕，多年来受到母亲和姐姐的逼问，使得她承受巨大的精神压力。当她终于向姐姐透露，自己正在接受试管内受精，姐姐竟然问Ogy为什么不早记年就这么做。听到这一句话，坐在我身边的一名观众不禁发出一声轻叹。很多时候，我们自以为的关怀，其实是沉重的枷锁，隐形的暴力常常出现在看似最平平无奇的言语与举止之间。
在接受试管内受精时，Ogy不禁想起自己第一次来月经的回忆—— 姐姐恐吓她，说她会终身流血不止。自Ogy来月经以后，她的姐姐、母亲、与父亲就一直给她灌输：来月经的女性是不净的，是会被惩罚的…… 月事是女性最自然不过、最正常的生理状况，为什么女性却必须被恐吓、谴责？为什么终身必须背负那么沉重的包袱？
每次换场之际，演员们在台上起舞。肢体的表达，展示出女性对自身肉体的矛盾：因其而喜，亦因其而忧。在叙事之间穿插舞蹈，是导演Sim Yan Ying “YY” 与编舞Dapheny Chen 的巧思，让观众除了通过观看故事理解各个人物的处境，也能够通过舞蹈感受角色所经历的困苦。尤其创意团队让演员们穿上服饰就进入角色、褪去服装后会进行舞蹈，让人容易联想：这不只是这些人物的故事，也是每个女性必然会有的经历。
编剧Jean Tay 不仅写出了女性与衰老的课题，她以细腻的笔触，探讨不同年龄阶段的女性在面对衰败的肉身、在面对社会对其肉身的支配与摆布，她们如何自处。
我们怎么去接受肉身的不堪？失智症的Ching整部戏都在寻找她的小镜子，尝试在镜子中找寻自己年轻的容颜（青春）。她和看护大吵以后，忽然消失。当看护终于找到她时，Ching一改以往的急躁和不安的姿态，她对看护说，她不需要再找镜子了，镜子一直都在她身上。Jean Tay 以寓言的方式，告诉我们：一朵花的盛开和凋零，并非是对立的，花的盛开之中蕴含着凋零，凋零之中依然有着盛放的姿势。
演员Suhaili Safari 非常亮眼，将Ogy的细腻情感表现得淋漓尽致，叫人为她心疼。舞台的各个元素搭配得丝丝入扣，音响、灯光与多媒体的美好搭配，为看戏体验加分，节奏也因此掌握得恰到好处，丝毫不会让人感觉时间的流逝。“pass·ages”是滨海艺术中心为培养新晋导演而展开的计划（TRIP）下推出的戏，年轻导演Sim Yan Ying “YY”在作品中已经展示了她的大将之风，她将戏剧与舞蹈融合在一起，在戏里呈现好几种语言，让来自不同领域的艺术工作者们齐聚一堂呈现戏剧作品…… 作为导演，“YY”对自己关心的课题的全情付出，向观众袒露她的困惑和恐惧，这份执着叫人肃然起敬。很期待她接下来的作品。
难忘剧末，Dana Lam 独自站在台上。在灯光下，她近乎不动，而我们凝视着她的肉身：肌肉的松弛，皱纹的折痕…… 处处都是故事，那幅情景真的好美。伫立在台上的Dana，正邀请观众参与观看她衰老的肉身。或许在时光的流逝中，我们可以选择站稳脚步，与时间一起呼吸，明白一朵花的凋零所蕴含的清寂与飘零，可以如此迷人，叫人心动。花是如此，人亦如是。
关于演出：2024年4月13日，8PM，滨海艺术中心剧院工作室(Theatre Studio)，滨海艺术中心 TRIP 呈献
演出详情、节目场刊：https://www.esplanade.com/whats-on/festivals-and-series/series/trip/passages#synopsis
关于TRIP：https://www.esplanade.com/get-involved/artist-development-platforms/trip
Face With the Withering of a Flower—Reviewing “pass.ages”
In the opening scene, a character (Nirmala Seshadri) invites the audience to close their eyes and, under her guidance, go through a meditation exercise together: she guides us in looking inward, turning up the awareness of our physical body ...... Then, in a turn of events, she leads the audience to notice the germs in the body, the ones that cause the physical body to age and to decay. She then invites us to get rid of these abominable germs with every exhale, even encouraging us to pass those germs to the audience around us, and that was when the audience burst out laughing.
This is where "pass·ages" starts its story— from the loathing of illness and aging, as it steers us on a journey with four main narratives, presented in a non-linear manner. Such fragmented narrative breaks the law of time, so that the audience can have the fun of slowly unraveling the sequence of each character’s journey.
According to the synopsis, four women try to come to term with their age, as well as their aging bodies. Ching (Dana Lam), who is in a nursing home, struggled to make peace with her new caretaker, whilst also struggling to accept her ageing body. Shivani (Nirmala Seshadri), a Bharatanatyam dancer who is no longer young, strives to subvert the audience's perception of older dancers, fighting to prove that she can still put up a moving performance despite her age. On the other hand, Millie (Shanice Stanislaus), who is in the prime of her life, preparing for her A levels and looking forward to life after her major exam, suddenly discovers that she has a terminal illness. Ogy (Suhaili Safari), struggling with pressure from her family members, who are insistent on Ogy getting pregnant, undergoes IVF and is suddenly flooded with memories of the injustice she suffer from all her lives, since the day she has her first period.
I like the way the play starts with the theme of "women" and "aging", and bloom to a larger issue of illness, death, and society's manipulation of the female bodies. Ogy has been under immense emotional pressure from her mother and sister for years. When she finally reveals to her sister that she is undergoing IVF, her sister asks Ogy why didn't she do it earlier, to which an audience member sitting next to me let out a soft groan.
Often, we impose shackles on other people in the disguise of care. Invisible violence often lurks behind seemingly mundane words and mannerisms.
As Ogy undergoes IVF, Ogy remembers her menarche, and how her sister threatened that Ogy would probably bleed for the rest of her life. Since then, Ogy’s sister, mother, and father instilled in her the notion that women who menstruate are unclean and are thus punishable. But why is this natural and normal physiological condition condemned? Why should women be threatened for this? Why must they carry such a heavy burden for the rest of their lives?
In between each scenes, the actors dance on stage, their physical expression showing their contradictory feelings towards the female bodies: joyful because of it, yet also full of sorrow. The idea of incorporating dance is the ingenious idea of director Sim Yan Ying "YY" and choreographer Dapheny Chen. Through the spoken texts, the audience can understand the characters’ struggle; with the dance, the audience can feel the characters’ struggle. Also, the creative team came out with the idea of letting the actors “put on” their characters (by changing into their costumes), and slipped out of their characters (by changing out of their costumes), so that the audience can easily understand that they are not just watching the stories of these characters, but that this is an experience every woman encounters.
The playwright, Jean Tay, did not just stop at subject of women and aging, but also explores how women of different ages deal with the idea of failing bodies, and society’s domination and manipulation of the female bodies.
How do we accept the the failing body? Ching, who has dementia, looks for her little mirror throughout the play, trying to search for her youthful face (her youth) in the mirror. After a big argument with the caregiver, she suddenly disappears. When the caregiver finally found her, Ching is no longer impatient and restless— she held her caregiver’s hand, and said that she has finally found her mirror, and that she realised the mirror has been in her pocket the whole time. Jean Tay is superb in using allegories, and with "pass.ages", this is her way of depicting the fact that the blooming and withering of a flower are not dualities-- the withering is in the blooming, and in the withering the bloom is still present.
Suhaili Safari put up a mesmerising performance, bringing out Ogy's intricate and layered emotions that made hearts break for her. The various design elements (sound, lighting and multimedia) were well put together, value-adding to the entire experience. The pacing was just right, so that the audience were almost unaware of the passing of time. “pass.ages" is presented under Esplanade's “TRIP”, a program set up to allow emerging directors to practice their craft, and "YY" definitely demonstrated great ambition in executing her directorial vision, blending theater and dance, incorporating multi-lingual approaches, bringing together artists across different art disciplines to present a theatrical work. As a director, "YY" gives her heart and soul to the subject she cares about, revealing her confusion and fear to the audience, which is a laudable commitment. I am already looking forward to her next work(s).
At the end of the play, Dana Lam stands on the stage: alone, in silence, almost motionless. Under the light, the audience gaze at her aging body: the flaccidity of her muscles, the creases of her wrinkles... Every bit of the body is full of stories. That was such a beautiful scene. As Dana invites the audience to watch her aging body, we cannot help but ponder about the possibility of choosing to stand firm in the face of passing time, breathing together with time, and hence understand how the quietude and tranquility of the withering flower can be so fascinating and touching at the same time.
This is true of flowers, and it is also true of people.
This review is written after the performance on 13 April 2024, 8pm at Esplanade Theatre Studio and presented by TRIP
Show details and programme booklet: https://www.esplanade.com/whats-on/festivals-and-series/series/trip/passages#synopsis
About TRIP: https://www.esplanade.com/get-involved/artist-development-platforms/trip
Comments
Post a Comment