剧评：Final Year Individual Project 2024
暴力的论述—— 观 FYiP2024
跨文化戏剧学院（Intercultural Theatre Institute，简称ITI）的FYiP演出有着很好玩的游戏规则：经过2年多的训练，学员们在FYiP中必须自编自导自演一部单人短剧，一切的道具、灯光、音效等，都必须由他们自己设计，他们只可利用校内已有的资源去进行创作。
资源如此有限，演员无法依赖过于繁杂的舞台设计来掩饰自己的不足；因为必须自己创作，而不是去演绎他人的剧本、不是去听命导演的指示，因此他们必须以创作者的角度思考自己究竟关心什么课题、想表达什么议题。
今年5位创作者们聚焦的课题都很不一样，我却以为他们的呈现恰好都和“暴力”相关。每一部短剧所探讨的课题都足以成为长长的历史课，在那么短的时间内（每人的演出都限于20分钟左右），内容不免流于表面；但在表演时，他们的真情、彷徨、迷惑、反思，叫人动容。
Adam Guevarra Almeniana的“Desaparecidos”探讨劳工遭政治迫害、遭强迫失踪的课题（“Desaparecidos”为西班牙语，指遭受人权侵害而失踪的人们）。上半场戏，他饰演的劳工操着加禄语（Tagalog），观众看到他的困境，以及他和其他劳工们一起争取平权的过程。戏的下半场，他化身为压迫者，造型如山姆大叔，口操着英语，以电视竞赛节目的方式展示他们对捉获的劳工所进行的折磨与虐待。他打破第四道墙，邀请观众上台一起施刑，一起成为同谋—— 那是神来之笔，让人不寒而栗。
但邀请观众上台做施暴者，这何尝不是一种暴力？Adam这么设计，是不是为了让观众明白，我们就算不上台，就算只是隔岸观火，任由desaparecidos一再发生，便是共谋？
Akshay Sharma的“India My Valentine”受1992年巴布里清真寺拆除事件启发。开场时， Akshay 化身为一位身心灵工作坊的讲员，为观众讲解如何寻找他们心中的“罗摩”（Rama，印度传说的伟大英雄、印度教信奉的重要神明）。他为观众述说自己的信仰，以及他对伊斯兰教徒的歧视，还复述自己如何参与巴布里清真寺拆除事件。随着剧情发展，他却渐渐开始迷惘，自觉自己的暴力手段似乎难以自圆其说…… 他的信念开始动摇。
巴布里清真寺是一座16世纪的清真寺，在1992年被印度教暴徒夷为平地，那起事件引发了全国各地的骚乱，造成近2000人死亡。这一天也是印度右翼政治势力崛起的一天，30余年后，在清真寺的遗址上，建成了一座供奉印度教最受尊敬的罗摩神的庙宇，而印度总理莫迪为其揭幕。
有趣的是，Akshay为短剧命名为“India My Valentine”，与2020年情人节期间多名印度艺人发起的“India My Valentine”企划名称不谋而合。2020年的“India My Valentine”企划旨在宣扬共同打造一个深具包容性的印度的理想，那是因2019年情人节期间的“印度普尔瓦马袭击”事件而发起的企划。Akshay的短剧最后在墙上打出了“India My Valentine”的字眼，是强而有力的质问：倘若“爱”一个族群/国家，就是将另一个族群/国家视为对立，并对其施以暴力，那么“爱”究竟是什么？
当爱沦为暴力的旗号，我们是不是需要更努力地探讨爱的本质？
Karthik S的“The Bath of Love”也谈爱，却以一个极具争议性的印度传统安乐死thalaikoothal 仪式讨论“爱”。创作者演绎一个将要进行thalaikoothal 仪式的孩子。台上的木偶静默，是孩子的年迈体弱的家长，它的脸充满皱纹，身体却是骷髅，离死亡很近，台上的木偶竟然有着不可思议的气场。
Thalaikoothal 意思是油浴安乐死，即人为地让病危的老人施行安乐死。孩子在传统与道德之间徘徊—— 他即将成为杀人犯，也即将成为孝子。孩子为父亲淋上冷水，却情不自禁担心父亲感觉冷，结果为他披上了毛巾，他在爱与传统之间无法作出决定。
“The Bath of Love”是个没有答案的命题，Karthik S选择这个议题进行创作，只是因时间的限制，没办法进行更深的讨论：例如他是希望讨论“善终”课题、或是“生命品质”、或是……？我喜欢他为这个充满争议性的课题选择了“爱”的角度去阐述，“The Bath of Love”很有发展成长篇剧（full length play）的潜能。
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Lam Man Yik《都是借来的》（Borrowed Hands, Borrowed Feet）是寓言般的故事，以荒谬情节述说关于流离失所、被迫离开原乡的人们。她冲泡咖啡，思考自己的居所，结果舞台场景一转，咖啡桌变成了她的池塘，她的手化作有蹼的“手”，她在池塘里和鱼儿说话，玩耍，并思念自己的家乡。她喜欢身而为鱼的自由，却剧烈思念养育她的城市…… 童话般的意境，逗趣的台词，然而观众看的时候，心里是一阵阵的纠结。
她全程以广东话说台词，我们不免联想到香港，以及香港人的处境。Lam Man Yik并不重笔浓墨地去谈香港，只是微微提及香港，就让人心疼不已。这么一来，她把格局拉开，让观众联想到历史上所有遭受同样暴力的受害者。
Lam Man Yik和Karthik S都在戏剧创作中加入木偶的戏剧元素。Krys Yuan的“Gifted”也用了“偶”，她手中有两只相似的毛绒玩具，一只有着可以展开的翅膀，另一只却没有。Krys以毛绒玩具作为全剧意象，探讨心理健康课题：剧中的双胞胎有着迥然不同的人生，一个是永远处在人生高峰的赢家，另一个是社会排斥的“失败者”，而无论是人生赢家或输家，都在心理健康的边缘濒临崩溃。
Krys没有进一步探讨这两个人物所处的社会，究竟为何如此，究竟有没有别的可能性，颇为可惜。但作为短剧，Krys为大家习以为常的新加坡竞赛制度般的生存法则提供了另一条出路—— 如何关心彼此，陪伴彼此—— 这是挺有意思的思路。
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这些小品的戏剧节奏略显拖沓，选择的课题却叫人印象深刻。在戏与戏之间的换场，学员们在黑暗中从表演区的门口搬道具、设立场景，朦胧中观众只见人影憧憧。然后在一切布置好以后，场上的门关上，戏就开始了。
每次门一关，我就想起，这世界上的暴力不断，仇恨不泯，也许今年的FYiP的启示，就在这门的开关之间。当我们愿意关上门去探索去直视去处理暴力，我们便朝“爱”靠拢多一点点了。
关于演出：2024年9月6日，8PM，ITI Studio 1，ITI毕业生呈现
点击阅读场刊：https://sites.google.com/iti.edu.sg/fyip-2024/home
Production & Stage Manager:
Clarisse Ng
Graduands’ Headshots:
Bernie Ng
演员/创作者
Adam Guevarra Almeniana, Akshay Sharma, Karthik S, Krys Yuan, Lam Man Yik
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Discourses on Violence - Reviewing FYiP2024
The rules of the Intercultural Theatre Institute's (ITI) FYiP performances are interesting: after more than two years of training, students must write, direct and act in a solo performance. They have to design their props, lighting and sound / music effects, etc. As they create their play, they can only utilize resources already available on campus.
With such limited resources, the actors can not longer rely on overly elaborate stage designs to cover up their shortcomings. Rather than interpreting another playwright's script, or to follow a director's instructions, they have to think from the perspective of an artist: What are their concerns? What do they want to express?
This year, the five creators focused on very different topics. Each play explores topic that can suffice as a long history lesson, and with such limited amount of time (each performance is limited to 20 minutes or so), they run the risk of scratching the surface of what they wish to talk about. However, it is still very moving to see how these creators expressed their sincerity, uncertainty, confusion, and reflection on the topic of their choices. It read to me that their presentations were all related to the exploration of “violence".
Adam Guevarra Almeniana's "Desaparecidos" explores the topic of political persecution and forced disappearance of laborers ("Desaparecidos" is the Spanish word for people who have been subjected to human rights abuses and have disappeared).
In the first half of the play, he plays a laborer who speaks Tagalog. The audience witness his plight and his struggle for humane treatment, along with other laborers. In the second half of the play, he takes on the role of the oppressor, looking very much like Uncle Sam, speaking in English and showcasing the torture and abuse they inflict on captured laborers in the manner of a television game show. He breaks the fourth wall by inviting the audience on stage to join him in the torture, to be a complicit in it-- a wonderful theatrical device to make the audince shudder.
Is it not a form of violence to invite the audience on stage to be the perpetrators, too? Or, was it Adam's intention for the audience to understand that, even if we escaped the fate of being invited on stage, the act of watching from the sidelines as desaparecidos happened over and over again means that we were already complicit in the act?
Akshay Sharma's "India My Valentine" was inspired by the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. In the opening scene, Akshay is conducitng a spiritual workshop, teaching the audience how to find their "Rama" (the great hero of Indian legend and an important deity in Hinduism). He tells the audience about his own beliefs, his discrimination against Islamists, and how he was involved in the demolition of the Babri Masjid. As the play progresses, however, he gradually begins to realize that his violent methods seem difficult to justify ...... His belief starts to waver.
The Babri Masjid, a mosque built in the 16th-century, was razed to the ground by a Hindu nationalist mob in 1992, an incident that sparked riots across the country and left nearly 2,000 people dead. It was also the day of the rise of right-wing political power in India. More than 30 years later, a temple dedicated to Hinduism's most revered god, Lord Rama, was built on the site of the mosque, and inaugurated by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Interestingly, Akshay named his play “India My Valentine”, which coincides with the name of the “India My Valentine” project launched by several Indian artistes on Valentine's Day weekend in 2020. The “India My Valentine” project in 2020 was held to promote the ideal of an inclusive India, and was launched in response to the “Pulwama Attack” on Valentine's Day 2019. Akshay's skit ends with the words "India My Valentine" projected onto the wall, delivering a powerful question: If to "love" one community/nation is to see another community/nation as antagonistic and to inflict violence on it, then what is “love"?
When love is used as a call for violence, don't we need to look harder at the nature of love?
Karthik S's "The Bath of Love" also talks about love, but approaches "love" in the context of the controversial thaikoothal, a traditional Indian euthanasia ritual. He portrays a child who is about to perform the thaikoothal ceremony. The puppet on the stage, the child's aged and frail parent, is mostly silent, with its wrinkled face and its body reduced to a skeleton. Strangely, the puppet on the stage has a very strong stage presence.
Thalaikoothal means euthanasia with oil bath, usually performed on the terminally-ill elderly. The child is torn between tradition and morality - he is about to become both a murderer and a dutiful son. The child drenches his father in cold water, but can't help worrying that the water is too cold for the father, and ends up putting a towel on him... He is unable to choose between love and tradition.
"The Bath of Love" is a proposition with no answer. With the limitation of the play, the work could not allow for a deeper discussion: for example, in talking about euthanasia, is he hoping to approach the topic from the aspect of the quality of life, or the notion of a "good death", or ......? I do like how he chose to talk about love for this controversial subject-- "The Bath of Love" does have the potential to become a full length play.
Lam Man Yik's "Borrowed Hands, Borrowed Feet" is an allegorical tale that explores the absurdity of people who have been displaced and forced to leave their homeland. As she brews coffee and contemplates her place of residence, the stage changes: the coffee table becomes a pond, her hands turns into webbed "hands", and she talks and plays with the fish in the pond, al the while missing her hometown. She loves the freedom of being a fish, but recalls the city that she grew up in ...... It is a whimsical work peppered with humor, yet the audience watches with a torn heart.
She speaks her lines in Cantonese throughout, and we can't help but be reminded of Hong Kong, and the plight of its people. Lam Man Yik does not refer to Hong Kong a lot, but just the slightest mention of the city makes one's heart ache. In doing so, she actually opens up the scope of her work to include all the victims that suffers the similar violence of displacement throughout history.
Lam Man Yik and Karthik S both incorporate elements of puppetry in their plays. In Krys Yuan's "Gifted", she also uses "puppet", as she holds two similar stuffed animals, one with opened wings and the other without. Krys uses the stuffed animals as imagery throughout the play to explore the issue of mental health: the twins in the play lead very different lives, one is a winner who is always at the top of her game, the other is a "loser" according to society's standard. Yet both winners and losers are on the verge of mental health breakdowns.
It is a pity that Krys doesn't discuss more about the society that these two characters grew up in: how the society came to be, and whether there are other possibilities besides the model of this rat race that traps. Krys does offer another way out— how to care for each other, how to be there for each other— and that's quite an illuminating take on this topic.
The plays generally have slow rythmn, but the subject matters leave one with much food for thought. During the scene change between each play, the actors brings in props and sets through doors. In the dark, the audience sees shadowy figures moving about, and once everything is set up, the doors close, and the next play begins.
Perhaps the revelation of this year's FYiP lies in the act of opening and closing of doors. Perhaps, it is only when we are willing to close the door to thoroughly investigate the nature of violence, as what these actors of FYiP did, would we finally be able to move a little closer to love.
Performance watched on: 6th September 2024, 8PM, ITI Studio 1, Presented by ITI Graduates
Programme booklet: https://sites.google.com/iti.edu.sg/fyip-2024/home
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