Technology meets tradition

The most popular form of live entertainment amongst the Siamese in the late 19th century, the folk opera known as likay has become increasingly rare in Bangkok over recent years but it’s still thriving in central Thailand, with troupes staging regular performances in front of enthusiastic audiences.
Suthirat “Koong” Wongtewan, whose performer parents instilled in him a passion for the genre, is determined to breathe new life into likay and is adding technological savvy to put it on par with modern Westernised entertainment and make it even more palatable to the new generation.
 

“Likay is a live performance so it needs to keep up with trends in technology,” says the 33-year-old Koong. “We are the first likay troupe to use an LED display. The stage looks more modern with an arched roof, the sound quality is better thanks to a surround sound system, and the LED display is used for the background.
“The sound system is supported by Sri Thongkham Film, which runs a successful outdoor theatre business in Angthong. We’ve also developed our own speakers over the years, going from horn tweeters to PA speakers with butterfly-shape bass reflex ports to the line-array loudspeakers we use today,” he adds.
Koong says he was inspired to use the LED display for his troupe after starting a second career as a luk thung singer with RS Public’s country-folk label R Siam, and realising for himself just how effective the screens are for a concert. He’s been learning how to use the display to the best effect since last December and says that his 5x3 metre, 15-panel screen cost in excess of Bt1 million.
“Our show consists of two parts – a concert and likay. During the former, the screen is presenting attractive graphics as well as what’s happening on stage, while for the latter, it is showing multiple scenes of the garden, house and temple. However, we want the audience to focus more on the performers than the background. If the scenes are moving all the time, the audience will be distracted and miss the story we are telling and performing.
“We have several scenes in stock. We take a lot of photos and we shoot videos on the road. It’s a kind of still-life photography mixed with graphic techniques. For us, it’s still very new and we have a lot to learn. Right now, we are only using the technology to switch from one scene to another. In the future, I would like it to be more involved with the story so it’s like the audience is watching a movie in parallel with our performance,” says Koong, who is promoting his compilation album, “Luk Thung Unplugged”.
During the show, the system is in the capable hands of one of Koong’s relatives, 29-year-old Ratanachai Sawangsri. He graduated from North Bangkok University’s Faculty of Information Technology and is adept at linking the scenes on the LED screen with the show on stage as well as mixing still-life images with graphics and designing the scenes.
“Before I started working with the system, we could only show our still-lifes on the screen. I inserted graphic programs that included flying butterflies, jumping animals, a flowing stream, even a thunderbolt. We tour a lot upcountry so we have the chance to take a lot of different images and shoot videos. We focus mainly on nature and culture.
“Koong was born in Chai Nat, so we present the tourist attractions of the province like the ancient city of Sankhaburi. That way the audience enjoys likay and gets to know more about the province.
“When we first started, the pictures on the screen weren’t very realistic because the colours were all wrong. I’ve softened them and they now look perfect with the stage lighting,” he explains. “We’re now experimenting with more dimensions of the characters and animals. It will make the audience feel like they’re watching a movie.”
Koong’s likay troupe has a repertoire of more than 40 tales, among them “Lued See Dam” (Black Blood) and “Lued Rak Upparaja” (Viceroy’s Love Blood), both adapted from the Indian movies. Both will be synchronised with the LED scenes soon.
Likay, which was born in central Thailand, may have evolved but it has never lost its unique characteristics: impromptu verse, fast-paced actions, and flamboyant costumes sparkling with embellishments.
In the 1970s, Koong’s father Narong Ausupha was the leading actor of his Chainarong Rungruang likay troupe while his mother Thaweeb Wongtewan was the leading actress of her Wongtewan troupe. The couple wed in 1978 and combined their troupes, renaming themselves Thaweeb-Narong Wongtewan the following year.
Both remain involved, with Narong handling the stage production for Koong and Thaweeb looking after the costumes.
“At ordination ceremonies, we performed on the ground, which was covered with wood, a mat and sometimes just with straw. That straw made us so itchy,” recalls Thaweeb with a fond smile. “We stopped using cloth-made backdrops because the main beam, which must be strong enough to support the backdrops, was just too difficult to transport.
Indeed, likay was not traditionally performed on a stage. Instead straw was spread over bare earth to prevent dust and dirt from spreading all over the area, while the backdrops were painted by hand – usually by the stage designers – to resemble forests and the throne room and forest.
The stage, when it came, was merely an elevated structural floor and the backdrop evolved into a piece of plywood with one scene only. Later, says Narong, it was changed to inkjet printing featuring just Koong’s portrait rather than a scene from a story.
“We were the first troupe to combine concert and likay on the same stage. Koong loved singing when he was young and became a likay performer later to replace my late brother,” says Thaweeb.
Asked if likay has a future among a K-pop-mad young generation, Koong says, “The major likay troupes are still popular with a lot of people. And a lot of new troupes are starting up, especially in Nakhon Sawan. For ourselves, we have trained children to be new performers. We use the concerts to draw teenagers and maybe they continue to sit through the rest of the performance. Also, our stories don’t focus on traditional tales as in the past but are more contemporary, taking their cue from TV dramas like ‘Rang Ngao’.”