SIFA 2015: The power of choice in Drama Box’s The Lesson
An MRT station is set to be built in a mature housing estate and one of seven important sites in the community has to go — which one will you vote out?
In what’s probably the most uncannily timed show at the Singapore International Festival of Arts, Drama Box is — by sheer coincidence — currently presenting a production that echoes the fervour surrounding the General Election, with its audience having to do some voting themselves.
Held inside the theatre company’s inflatable GoLi tent space outside the Toa Payoh Public Library, It Won’t Be Too Long: The Lesson is one of two shows Drama Box is presenting at the festival—the other is the two-part It Won’t Be Too Long: The Cemetery, held next week at Bukit Brown Cemetery at dawn and at the School Of The Arts at night.
While Drama Box is known for its forum theatre shows, The Lesson is less theatre and more forum, a rather stripped down affair that goes straight to the heart of the problem concocted by artistic director Kok Heng Leun: A group of non-actors, representing the residents of a fictitious mature housing estate, are assembled at the centre to vote for the most expendable site, over which a new train station will be built.
It’s a tough call because all seven of these are important in their own ways. You have two heritage sites (a columbarium and a cinema, the latter doubling up as a place where foreign workers hang out), a hospice, a halfway house, a wet market, a rental flat and a piece of marshland. There’s an added twist as well: If the residents don’t come to a consensus, the audience — as outsiders — are required to step in with their own consensus. And if that doesn’t work, everyone forfeits the right to choose and lets the authorities decide for them.
Facilitators led by Kok keep the discussions flowing, a couple of experts (including social worker Jolovan Wham) step in to offer their views, and information is all around us (in “site stations” set up by artist Ong Kian Peng) as we see grassroots democracy in action.
“Residents” and audience members debate and offer their views. It’s a deceptively simple exercise that becomes complex as multiple voices complicate the situation: Do we prioritise the living over the dead (the columbarium)? Human needs over nature (the marsh)? Is it going to be Singaporeans versus foreign workers (the cinema)? Is it a localised issue or a national one? And if we’re looking at a “bigger picture”, how big is that picture going to be — a global one? Should the present take precedence over the future? Is saving one out of two heritage sites enough?
In the event that we “outsiders” need to vote for the estate’s divided residents, do we take into consideration the thoughts of their majority or decide according to what we think is right, even though we don’t live there?
And while it may be a (well-imagined) fictional scenario, it’s unavoidable how reality seeps in: Places such as Sungei Buloh, Capitol Theatre, Rex Cinemas, the open air space where ION Orchard now stands, Little India, Holland Village and, of course, Bukit Brown Cemetery are brought up to further complicate things.
In a show presented in such an open format, each outcome is sure to be distinct. On the night we saw the show, it was done in English and the “residents” seemed predominantly of a younger demographic, while the previous night’s show was in Mandarin, with a more diverse group of “residents” age-wise. That show apparently ended in a stalemate (on both levels), with the decision passed on to faceless authorities.
Ours, meanwhile, had a specific outcome, with public opinion morphing as the debates flowed. While the cinema, columbarium and wet market were initially more-or-less deadlocked, opinion would eventually shift towards the columbarium as the sacrificial lamb for development among the “residents” and audience members (when the former could not reach a definite consensus).
Obviously, The Lesson presents an extremely simplified process of decision-making, with a timeframe that’s too short for anyone to dig and discuss issues as deeply as possible. Its stakes, too, as a piece of performance, are temporary and not high (compared with the actual elections).
Nevertheless, it’s a fascinating experience that’s heightened by the context during which it’s shown, revealing the often messy issues beneath that idealised word called “democracy” and consensus-building. You could say that the audible hoots of the victors and gasps of dismay of those who didn’t in this particular “election process” underscore just how precious people consider their vote.
But as the residents symbolically put up the barrier over the columbarium, there was also a palpable sense of sadness at what could be considered a hollow victory. We suspect, should there be consensus in the other shows, it would be the same feeling whatever the chosen doomed site is.
The Lesson, it would seem, is more than just that of empowerment — it’s also about consequence, loss and, perhaps, bigger things than simply that powerful “X” on the ballot.
There’s one more English performance of It Won’t Be Too Long: The Lesson today (Sept 12), 8pm, at GoLi outside the Toa Payoh Public Library. Free admission. For more info on the festival, visit http://sifa.sg/sifa/
