Sex theatre

The bizarre chalk drawings on the wall of monkeys climbing Klimt trees in the nighttime pretty much set the tone for my most hilarious theatre experience. Ever.


Makhampom Theatre originated back in the 1970s as part of the democracy movement. As students were killed and detained, many fled to the jungles up north. As such, the theatre has continued for over 25 years by being based in Chiang Dao in the north. They define their work as being theatre for community and cultural development, so they do both community based folk theatre as well as "theatre for development".

Their studio in Bangkok is out by Saphan Kwai station, it's a tiny but inviting space. I guess watched one of their "theatre for development" pieces called Sperm because it turned out to have a sex education objective.

It began with audience participation. We were to write down on a piece of paper what we call our genitals. Then we fold it and put it in a basket. And THEN, the basket gets passed around and your audience comrades have to read them out loud. The first word to get read out was in English. And it was rude. All eyes turn to the only 2 non-Thais in the room. So, understandably, my audience comrade had a hard time pronouncing it which meant that I had to assist her. Hilarity ensued.

I can't even describe the play if I tried. Everyone wore flourescent stuff and there was black light and people pretending to be sperm and ova. I got lost at certain points, so I had to ask my friend Aoe to help me out with the translation. "He have sex with hand" "now he have sex with mouth" "girl scared of sperm".

At the beginning, when reading out words used to describe our sexual organs or whatever, I found it interesting that the Thai words being read out were metaphorical and mostly a non-reference. One person wrote the Thai word for "bread" another wrote "pig" and another wrote "down there". Most had cute nicknames that mean nothing, like "juu" and "chim". Intrestingly, the audience members were all adults in our early 20s but the play was childish, colourful and spoke about sex firstly from a male point of view (I know it was called "Sperm", but still) and secondly in a very animated, cartoony "let's turn this into a game" way.

I really see the link between the lack of openness in discussion about sex and sexuality and the confusing women's movement here. There is a strong women's labour movement and they have been successful in lobbying for labour rights for women, and there is also a strong sex workers movement where again they have done tremendous work in being recognised under labour law. But there doesn't seem to be much of a broad-based, widespread women's movement that can lead to open discussion, both in the private and public sphere, about sexuality. And so, even in their 20s, young people here are learning about sex through cartoons.