剧评：Motherland
战争的深思（对人/性之探索）—— 观 “Motherland”
文/ 梁海彬
刊登于 联合早报 “艺评”：https://www.zaobao.com.sg/lifestyle/culture/story20240229-1471131
在M1艺穗节2024呈现的作品“Motherland”（由艺术团体Very Shy Gurl by fendy 呈现），灵感源于1993年以色列与巴勒斯坦双方签署的的《奥斯陆协议》和平协议。身兼导演与编剧的Noor Effendy Ibrahim 以看似荒谬的情境，破碎的情节，呈现出战争与爱的荒谬。
开场时，一位双手负着重物的军人（Irfan Kasban饰演）重复着大力喘息；另一位军人（Bada Jabari饰演）沉浸在自己的虚妄之中无法自拔；Dog（Mish’aal饰演）则跪在地上，重复摇着头。剧中的时间并非线性的，以零散破碎的方式呈现，让人不知时日，让人感受战火中无尽无止的时间，恍若置身无间地狱。
两位敌对阵营的军人相爱了。这对军人恋人时而轻轻抚摸彼此，时而拉扯对方头发；他们时而拥抱，时而粗暴地压着对方。因战火而长期受着暴虐的肉体，是否还具备爱的能力？饱受战火蹂躏的肉体还可以承载多少痛与爱？剧中，被迫负重的军人不断阐述自己和他妻子之间的往事，他在一次一次的叙述中试图重新拾回爱的感受，却始终一脸迷濛：他只有回忆，没有感受。肉体在泄愤与爱抚之间激烈摆荡：他们是恋人，却以暴力的方式相互对待。他们仿佛只记得爱的身体语言（如性交和拥抱），却忘了如何在心中感受爱—— 战火燃烧成灰的，不只是人的肉身。
Dog是非常有趣的角色，带出整出戏的主题。Dog穿着长裙，服从着军人们的指令，被“枪”射就倒地佯死，头发被粗暴拉扯也不会抵抗。然而，他负责拉扯铁链铐住军人，身为“Dog”的他则不被铁链铐锁。
因此Dog既人既狗，又不人不狗；既男既女，也不男不女；既服从人也主宰人，又不服从不主宰…… 一如编导Effendy和其创作者们既谈战争也谈爱，却也对战争和爱只字不谈。与其说“Motherland”谈的是战争与爱这二元对立的主题，Effendy其实是以Dog这只“兽”探索“人性”的“非二元性”。
什么是“人”？一旦失去了人性，人还是人吗……？在“Motherland”里，所谓人性，是“感受力”。我们看见军人任Dog拿皮带拷打他，看见军人以肉身躺压在钢质床架上，看见军人将水倒在对方脸上…… 这些在战火中失去了感受力的人们，正在以各种方式重拾感受力，重拾身而为人的意义。
戏里，现场演唱的歌手Rosemainy Buang 以爪哇语唱出大地之歌，歌声在黑箱里荡漾，像是安抚在受难的身躯，也像是控诉发动战争的掌权者。歌是爪哇语，戏里角色也是马来族/印度裔，角色们却都以英语交谈…… 为何不用马来语或淡米尔语呢？
或许，因为戏在新加坡上演，以英语呈现，观众反而能看得出其普世性，明白对人性的追求是跨越地域和文化的。但我个人却期望，倘若创作团队在未来能有继续发展“Motherland”的机会，或许可以考虑不以英语呈现，看看会否更接近他们想进行的关于“边缘族群之身躯与观看者之间的关系”的实验。
M1艺穗节让艺术工作者有机会与观众一起面对尖锐的课题，进行极富创意的艺术尝试，挑战固有剧场形式，开拓更多元化的艺术表现手法，绝对是本地剧场极其需要的艺术空间。观众也是剧场生态的重要一环，M1艺穗节除了让艺术工作者有发挥与成长的空间，也在为观众进行培育工作，M1艺穗节担任着让艺术家与观众共同成长的角色。
“Motherland”荒诞的剧情，对人性的深刻探索，让我想起了萨缪尔·贝克特在二战后写的《等待果陀》，以及郭宝昆先生探讨战争议题的《灵戏》—— 两出戏都是荒诞派戏剧，都是当年的前卫戏剧，而今都成了经典。我期待“Motherland”能获得更多发展与实验的机会，呈现给更多的观众观赏，它对“爱”与“战争”与“人性”的深层探索，使得这个作品绝对有走出国外面向世界的潜能。
观看演出：2024年1月19日，8PM，实践空间（黑箱剧场），M1艺穗节2024 呈现
点击阅读场刊：https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/bp85oua3t5i7rcwjty3oc/h?dl=0&preview=M1SFF2024+-+E-Programme+-+Motherland.pdf&rlkey=7cb177lvpkfoo6revipyb57ba
Thoughts on war (the exploration of human/nature)—— Reviewing Motherland
Translation by Neo Hai Bin and Melissa Lim
Motherland (by Very Shy Gurl by fendy) presented at the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2024 was inspired by the Oslo Accords peace agreement signed by Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in 1993. Director and playwright Noor Effendy Ibrahim created seemingly absurd situations and fragmented narratives to highlight the absurdity of war, and of love.
In the opening scene, a soldier (played by Irfan Kasban), his hands tied with heavy weights, repeatedly gasped for breath under the immense burden; another soldier (played by Bada Jabari) was immersed in his own delusion, unable to extricate himself; Dog (played by Mish'aal) kneeled on the ground, shaking his head repeatedly. Time was not linear in the play, but presented in a fragmented manner, so that the audiences were made unaware of time, akin to the endless time in the flames of war, and of hell.
Two soldiers from opposing camps fell in love. The lovers sometimes touched each other gently, sometimes yanked each other's hair. Sometimes, they embraced; at other times, they held down each other violently. Does the human body that suffered prolonged violence in war still have the ability to love? How much more pain and love can a war-torn body carry?
In the play, the soldier forced to bear heavy burden constantly spoke about his wife, trying repeatedly to regain the feeling of love through each act of narration. Yet the more he spoke, the more confused he became: he was left with memories without feelings. The human body oscillated fiercely between anger and love: the soldiers were in love, yet they treated each other with violence. They seemed to only remember the physical language of love (such as hugging and sexual intercourse), but were no longer capable of remembering the emotional feeling of love. It is not just the human bodies that are burned to ashes by the flames of war.
Dog is a very compelling character that embodies the theme of the play. Dog wore a long skirt and obeyed the soldiers' instructions, falling to the ground on command, pretending to die when shot by a "gun". Despite being manhandled with his hair tugged and pulled he never resisted. He was responsible for binding the soldier with metal chains—and yet, as "Dog", he was never cuffed by chains.
Therefore, Dog is both human and beast, and yet neither human nor beast. Dog is both male and female, and yet neither male nor female. Dog is both obedient and dominant, yet neither obedient nor dominant... Just like how the director and his creators spoke about war and love, yet also spoke nothing about war and love. Rather than describing Motherland as an examination of the binaries of war and love, we could say that Effendy was actually exploring the notion of "human nature" through the non-duality nature of Dog.
What constitutes a "human"? Are we still human when humanity is lost? In Motherland, the so-called human nature is “the ability to feel". We witnessed the soldier allowing Dog to keep pelting him with blows from a belt; how the soldiers squashed their bodies against the steel bed frame; how the soldiers poured water on each other's faces... In the throes of war, those who have lost their ability to feel were trying ways and means to regain the ability to feel again. They were attempting to become human again.
Vocal artist Rosemainy Buang sang live in the play, singing the song of the earth in Javanese, her voice reverberating through the black box, as if comforting the suffering human body, and yet lamenting those who started the wars. While the songs were sung in Javanese, the actors in the play are Malay/Indian, and yet all the characters spoke in English... One has to question why the characters not speaking in Malay or Tamil.
Perhaps because the play is staged in Singapore, the audience would be able to understand the universality of the play if the characters speak in English. Perhaps the artistic choice was to nudge the audiences towards understanding that the pursuit of “humanity” transcends nationalities and cultures. But personally, if the creative team has the opportunity to further develop Motherland in the future, I hope that they would consider not presenting the play in English—just to see if it will be closer to their intention of experimenting with the notion “…to achieve a hyper-realistic conversation between the performance of the minority body and the gaze (of the audience/spectator) in the performance site…”.
The M1 Singapore Fringe Festival provides artists the opportunity to discuss difficult social issues with the audience, to freely indulge in creative experiments, to challenge theatre forms and styles, and to develop different ways of artistic expressions. The Fringe Festival is definitely a precious platform that is a necessity to the local theatre. In giving artists a space to experiment and grow, the Fringe Festival is also nurturing the audience an important part of the theatre ecology— at the same time. The festival certainly plays a pivotal role in allowing artists and audiences to grow together.
The absurd plot and profound exploration of human nature in Motherland reminds me of Waiting for Godot (written by Samuel Beckett after World War II), and The Spirits Play (written by Kuo Pao Kun). These plays explored issues of war and humanity. Waiting for Godot and The Spirits Play are absurd plays and were considered avant-garde theatre of their time. Now, they have become classic works. I hope Motherland gets more opportunities for development and experimentation, and I look forward to it being presented to more audiences. With its in-depth exploration of "love", "war" and "human nature”, Motherland certainly has the potential to be presented in different parts of the world.
Performance watched: 19th January 2024, 8PM, Practice Space (Black Box), presented by M1 Fringe Festival 2024
Performed by: Very Shy Gurl by fendy (Singapore)
Performers
Bada Jabari
Irfan Kasban
Mish’aal
Vocal Artist
Rosemainy Buang
Sound Artist
Isyraf
Artistic Director-Producer
Noor Effendy Ibrahim
Production Manager
Clarisse Ng
Lighting Designer
Emanorwatty Saleh
Lighting Associates
Ian Rohan
Morales Mitzi Ramos
Qi Yun
Tan Wei Wei
Wee Leng
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