{"id":1228,"date":"2019-07-08T09:57:27","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T09:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artsequator.com\/aamr\/?page_id=1228"},"modified":"2019-07-08T09:59:29","modified_gmt":"2019-07-08T09:59:29","slug":"critics-live-summary","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/artsequator.com\/aamr\/critics-live-summary\/","title":{"rendered":"Critics Live Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Critics Live: A Post-Show Response to Displaced Persons' Welcome Dinner (Summary)<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

The Arts House, Living Room
24 May 2019, 10:30pm<\/p>

Panel:\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Dede Pramayoza (Indonesia)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Helmi Yusof (Singapore)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Hiroyuki Takahashi (Japan)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Pawit Mahasarinand (Thailand)<\/p>

Moderator:\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Kathy Rowland (Singapore)<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Kathy Rowland opened by introducing the critics on the panel, noting that they will share their most immediate post-show thoughts after Displaced Persons\u2019 Welcome Dinner (DPWD) rather than thorough analyses.<\/p>

Helmi Yusof commended the play\u2019s ambition and rigour as a rare Singaporean work dealing with war and conflict. He enjoyed the play until the penultimate scene set at a party where the dialogue felt \u201cartificial\u201d, losing the rest of the play\u2019s natural rhythm. He felt the play did not give closure to the fate of a major character, Mike, while other extraneous plot threads were tied. Quoting Bertolt Brecht\u2019s Life of Galileo: \u201cUnhappy is the land that needs heroes\u201d, he notes the \u201cheroes\u201d in this play are fallible beings capable of doing bad things.<\/p>

Dede Pramayoza commended the direction, including lighting design and the surrealism of the music and movement. He was particularly moved at the scene in which the character Angela breaks down while praying over the phone with her parents.<\/p>

Pawit Mahasarinand joked that DPWD is \u201cthe least Singaporean play [he has] watched,\u201d explaining that DPWD has a universal appeal. It sheds crucial light on the lesser-represented stories of humanitarian aid workers. He felt DPWD\u2019s surrealist elements did not work, as it diluted the dialogue which is crucial in a story rarely told in the media; he would have preferred naturalism.<\/p>

Hiroyuki Takahashi remarked on the importance of sharing stories that haven’t happened in [the playwright\u2019s] own country, to provoke the audience to consider these issues beyond what is depicted in the media.<\/p>

Audience Q&A<\/strong><\/p>

Many in the audience, including an aid worker from Indonesia, felt the play refreshingly foregrounded the lives and power dynamics of international aid workers, albeit, as some opined, at the expense of the perspectives of local workers and refugees. Alfian Sa\u2019at particularly critiqued the play\u2019s decision to deal with \u201cmiddle class angst\u201d amid \u201cundifferentiated brown bodies\u201d of refugee figures made peripheral. Dede pointed out that DPWD is not ultimately about refugees at all, but people working in a transnational office, noting the possibility that what happened to the aid workers can also happen to the refugees.<\/p>

Corrie Tan acknowledges the panel comprises only men, discussing a work that tackles sexual assault. She reads in the play a very personal tragedy embedded within a larger one: the humanitarian aid-worker character Sara is trapped, and held hostage within the bounds of the humanitarian organisation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Sharmilla Ganesan shares her ambivalence about DPWD and surprise at Corrie\u2019s and Helmi\u2019s positive responses. She asks the critics how they review works outside of their own context or country, to which the critics respond that they try to be as informed as possible though understanding is never perfect.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Critics Live: A Post-Show Response to Displaced Persons’ Welcome Dinner (Summary) The Arts House, Living Room24 May 2019, 10:30pm Panel:\u00a0 Dede Pramayoza (Indonesia)\u00a0 Helmi Yusof (Singapore)\u00a0 Hiroyuki Takahashi (Japan)\u00a0 Pawit Mahasarinand (Thailand) Moderator:\u00a0 Kathy Rowland (Singapore) \u00a0 Kathy Rowland opened by introducing the critics on the panel, noting that they will share their most immediate …<\/p>\n

Critics Live Summary<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1228","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsequator.com\/aamr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsequator.com\/aamr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsequator.com\/aamr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsequator.com\/aamr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsequator.com\/aamr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1228"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/artsequator.com\/aamr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1231,"href":"https:\/\/artsequator.com\/aamr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1228\/revisions\/1231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsequator.com\/aamr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}