Starting Saturday, the historic neighborhood Nang Loeng will for four evenings become the main stage where everyone – including the audience – is a part of a play.
Following its sold-out production last year that took audiences into the streets of Chinatown to solve a mystery, Canadian theater company Single Thread Theatre Co. is staging its next immersive theater experience in another vintage neighborhood.
Dubbed Unless, the thriller-themed production puts the audiences in the role of a scion summoned to their family estate only to learn that a cousin has gone missing.
Running four evenings — two this weekend and next — the production embarks on its journey from inside 120-year-old arts hub Bangkok 1899, before taking its sensational mystery into the streets of Nang Loeng.
“We were interested in Nang Loeng because of its rich history as one of the oldest neighborhoods in Bangkok with a legacy of performance culture,” said show producer Lindsey Higgs.
The 90-minute play, directed by Liam Karry, features both Thai and foreign actors. Being an immersive and interactive experience, there will be no fixed stage and seatings. The play also involves local residents as the stage is the neighborhood itself.
“All of your senses will be engaged – touch, smell, sight, taste and sound through your interactions with characters you meet along the way,” Higgs said.
Performer Amornsri “Ann” Pattanasitduanggul described the unique creative challenge.
“Usually when I perform in a show, I just do it on my own. But this play is so special because it gives me an adrenaline rush all the time,” she said. “I need to have my wits about the audience and interact with each of them. I look into their eyes, feel their feelings and have to make them to be in the same moment as I am. It’s challenging.”
Unless begins at 6:30pm on four evenings: Saturday, Sunday (sold out), Dec. 7 and Dec. 8. It beings at Bangkok 1899 on Nakhon Sawan Road in the Nang Loeng neighborhood. Tickets are THB1,700 and can be booked via lindsey@singlethread.ca
FIND IT:
Unless
Nov. 30, Dec. 1, Dec. 7 and Dec. 8
Bangkok 1899, Nakhon Sawan Road, Pom Prap Sattru Phai, Bangkok
BTS National Stadium
MRT Sam Yot
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