Bangkok has a new playhouse, and it's not specifically built for Broadway-style musicals. That's good news. Records have already shown that we produce about twenty times more plays than musicals, and critics have pointed out that the former is more significant to Thai theatre than the latter.

Despite its name, Naked Masks Playhouse’s inaugural production is not produced by the house company Naked Masks. And that’s a good sign—just like what similar venues like Mahampom Studio and Crescent Moon Space are doing—they’re available for any theatre troupe who wants to stage small-scale productions.

Theatre Aa, run by Japan-born, Thai-bred actor-director-playwright Shoko Tanikawa whose past works include “A Christmas Story” and “Pattaya”, accepts the invitation and stages their latest play “Green Concerto” here.

The 90-minute play is set in a university's "Stop Global Warming Club" in the year 2012, when problem has reached a peak. A professor is trying to convince a senior student named Big to join his club, hoping that his four “gigs”—or who’re more than friends but not girlfriends all of whose names Big cannot remember—will come along too. Later, they're joined by three more characters: the club's student president, a down-to-earth good-looking girl who catches Big's attention; a noodle stall owner who's having trouble with his wife; and another professor who reads FHM and is hoping to cheat on his girlfriend while she's away.

The well-honed script, filled with original jokes, prevents the play from becoming just another environmentalist propaganda piece. Even when the professor gives a brief lecture on the effects of global warming, the audience wouldn’t feel like they’re being preached. In the end, it’s more like a play about choices we make in life, for ourselves and our loved ones, for today and tomorrow.

Apart from three young actors and an actress who work well altogether—except for some line fumbling—, the well-paced 90-minute play features two veteran thespians, from other troupes, whose cameo performance adds extra laughs. Sorry, their names of this duo should not be unsealed here for the audience’s complete surprise: one of them is even listed in the programme booklet as “seal”.

Taking its inspiration from Al Gore's Academy Award-winning "An Inconvenient Truth", this delightful and engaging stage work is definitely Tanikawa's best play to date.

Call up your friends and make a date to see it before hitting the bars in search of a hot time. It might change your plans - it changed mine.

>> “Green Concerto” continues its run at Naked Masks Playhouse, on the 4^th floor of Phayathai Plaza (BTS: Phayathai), this Thursday (July 31) to Sunday (August 3).

>> With English and Japanese surtitles.

>> Showtimes at 7pm, with additional 2pm matinees on Saturday and Sunday.

>> Tickets are Bt 200 (Bt 150 for students), bookable by calling 081 285 0278.

>> Advance reservation is a must: there are only 32 seats in this playhouse.

written by Pawit Mahasarinand

published in Daily Xpress on Wednesday, July 30, 2008

photo courtesy of Theatre Aa