In celebration of the 130th anniversary of Thailand and Japan's diplomatic relations and as part of the Japan Foundation Asia Center's initiatives, the Japan Foundation, Bangkok and Chulalongkorn University have joined forces to bring Bangkok Notes to the opening performance at Bangkok Theatre Festival 2017 Sharing Moments to be held at the Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts (Bangkok) in November 2017!

Bangkok Notes takes place in the lobby of an art museum in the near future in Bangkok. A major war is being waged in Europe and many paintings, including those by Johannes Vermeer, have been moved to the museum. Thai family members, friends and lovers continue their fragmentary conversation on how to take care of their ageing parents, and discuss their future careers, love, inheritance, and so on. The play portrays how Bangkok people lead their ordinary, everyday lives, and reveal a whole range of problems and crises that arise in modern-day society.

Written and Directed by Oriza Hirata
Thai Translation: Sawita Diteeyont

Contemporary Japanese Classic, in Thai for the First Time

The Japan Foundation, Bangkok and the World Performances @ Drama Chula programme at Chulalongkorn University (Department of Dramatic Arts, Faculty of Arts) present Bangkok Notes, an original script written and directed by Oriza Hirata, an internationally acclaimed artist and scholar.
Bangkok Notes is an adaptation of Hirata's Tokyo Notes—a production inspired by Yasujiro Ozu's film Tokyo Story—which has been translated into fifteen languages for productions in many cities around the world, including the Festival d'Avignon in France. One of the most critically acclaimed works of Hirata's "contemporary colloquial theatre," the play has also generated artistic collaboration and cultural exchange for the productions of Seoul Notes (2013), Taipei Notes (September 2017, as part of Taipei Arts Festival), and, now, Bangkok Notes (November 2017, as part of Bangkok Theatre Festival).

To make sure that the Thai script communicates well with the local Thai audience, Sawita Diteeyont (Lecturer, Chulalongkorn University) a scriptwriter for TV dramas and whose doctoral thesis is on play adaptation has been working on the adaptation closely with the Japanese director and Thai actors.

Leading the twenty-member cast are Sumontha Suanpholrat and Varattha Tongyoo, both of whom have won the International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC) Thailand Awards for best performance by a female actor in 2012 and 2016 respectively. Students in theater of both undergraduate and graduate levels play supporting roles in the production, and also in the cast are Anatta Theatre Group's Duangjai Hirunsri, B-Floor Theatre's Teerawat Mulvilai and Sao Soong Theatre's Nut Nualpang.

Event detail

This is the certified project of beyond 2020 program.