快评：The School
关于演出：2023年6月4日，7PM，史丹福艺术中心，SIFA2023呈现
Reviewer / Yeo Min Hui
If you could go back to school, what new insights would you gain and what would you want to change?
“The School”, commissioned by the Singapore International Arts Festival (SIAF), is a participatory theatre that gave its audience the opportunity to go back to school and take a lesson as a student in the mainstream education system again. Upon entering the theatre, audience members were asked to change into uniforms, have their student photos taken, and then assemble in the auditorium. The audience was then divided into three groups. In our groups, we discussed the rules of the day and then proceeded to participate in a series of group and individual activities. My group had to make their own “happy meal” out of clay, and wash and towel each other off. Between activities, we each had to draw cards, meditate on how they related to us, and write our answers to the question "What do you need today?" on a piece of paper, which we then took turns sharing anonymously with the group. At the same time, an actor playing three different life stages (a college graduate, a bride, a woman sewing a dress) moved between the three groups from time to time with no expression on his face. At the end, everyone returned to the auditorium again, where the main facilitator asked everyone to find a corner just for themselves to spend ten minutes alone. The show then ended.
By simulating a real-life situation, “The School” created a valuable time and space, allowing the audience to return to school again (and for those audience who were still schooling, perhaps as an alienated form) and reflect on our respective formative years, the relationship between the group and the individual, the meaning of education… And so on. Setting the performance in Stamford Arts Centre, which used to be a Japanese school, also helped to deepen the immersive experience for the audience. If I could go back to school, what new insights would I gain and what would I want to change? After the novelty of changing into my school uniform wore off, I noticed a faint sense of disgust as I stood in the auditorium with everyone else, waiting to be grouped. Presumably this was because I had previously become more and more resistant to relatively pointless and constricting regimes such as wearing uniforms, not being allowed to speak in the auditorium, and having to stand still and not move during flag-raising ceremonies during my previous school years. This proves that “The School” did, in a way, successfully jolt memories with its simulated reality.
It was a shame that this steamy, darkly growing ripples of disgust didn't end up expanding into a lake for reflective hearts and minds. I'll use the language of counselling to describe my experience: I felt that during the three and a half hours, “The School” was trying to move me from a “pre-contemplation stage”, in which I had no awareness of the problem, to a "contemplation stage”, where I become aware of the problem and begin to think seriously about it or look at it directly. One of the most obvious developments in the play is the gradual change of tone— the lighting, the music, the tone of the director's voice, all of which become gentler and gentler as the show progresses, clearly intended to create an atmosphere and an opportunity to help the audience to discover the problem and to engage in personal introspection. What this "problem" is varied from person to person and from group to group (for example, the group I participated in was particularly concerned with the necessity of "setting rules and obeying them”; but I personally felt most strongly when working with clay, in which I slightly regained a sense of independence and freedom, and was reminded of the lack of it in my current life).
But just as one can see new aspects and ask questions spontaneously in the early stages, one of the keys is to create an environment of trust and rapport (which does not necessarily equate to mutual agreement) to improve understanding of the status quo. In order to understand and discover the readiness of new perspectives, I personally feel that "The School" can first try to establish a certain emotional foundation in the group before frequently inviting participants to self-examined, and then think from others' perspective, and then reflect on themselves. Throughout the performance, it seemed as if the participants only completed one ritual after another (rituals have the potential to inspire or express), but because we had not established any ounce of emotional relationship with those around us (the design of the activity had not yet been effective in allowing for more meaningful interactions between group members), so even if we completed the actions, it was difficult to achieve the most important thing in the rituals— the spiritual touch. We lacked a reason to be emotionally and spiritually invested, so it was difficult to achieve personal or communal inspiration or relief through the humble and simple act of coming together (e.g., washing towels, preparing a meal, gathering around to share one's needs, etc.). Throughout the show, it was also as if I had walked into a workshop full of tools. As I walked in, I picked up various tools to examine, experiment with, and created meaning for myself and the group, but this was more out of our curiosity than of the intention of those tools. Although this is also a practice of the initiative and creativity of the participants, the imprint it left was not deep.
"The School" has the rare ability to gather audiences from all walks of life onto a campus setting, and the care taken in setting the scene and preparing the props is evident to all. When the bell rang again, I believe everyone will meet again. This is indeed the journey of learning~
Performance watched: 4th June, 2023, 7PM, Stamford Arts Centre, presented by SIFA2023
Click to read related information: https://www.sifa.sg/creation/creation-details/festival-commission/the-school%20
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