Byline: Zac Kendall

Dancing with shadows

If prose is written or spoken language in ordinary form, without metrical structure, and painting is an expression of a moment, a memory, an emotion, then poetry is the bastard child of the two. It maintains the emotion of each, but displays it in a very different way. Novelists spend hundreds of pages trying to describe a situation; poets do it in one. Painters present a captured moment; poets paint it in front of your eyes.

Gustave Flaubert once said: “Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry.” Despite Flaubert’s nationality (French), I’m inclined to agree. A book of poetry is like viewing a collection of paintings: worst-case scenario, you appreciate the effort; best-case scenario, they touch you somehow. They make you feel something familiar, perhaps something you’ve forgotten or something you want to forget. You connect with them. Poetry is like a memory asking shadows to dance and in Scott Bywater’s most recent collection of poetry, they do.

Scott is best known around town for his snazzy hat, solo act and the seven-something bands he’s in. His newest collection of poetry, Presence: Volume 3, is self-published. Scott’s a formerly recovering poet who fell off the wagon. “I wrote poetry a lot when I was in high school and then in my early 20s then gave it up altogether. Music as well, actually. The music came back in my late 30s; the poetry not until about two and a half years ago, when I turned 44. I was always a little inspired by the line from a poet called Joel Oppenheimer: ‘If you’re a poet at 20, it’s because you’re 20; if you’re a poet at 40, it’s because you’re a poet.’ Is that a self-fulfilling prophecy?”

All the poems in Presence: Volume 3 were written between January and September of this year. Many were also used in WASH, an eclectic group of four sound wizards for whom Scott provides the spoken word. All of them hang with the weight of living as an expat in Cambodia and have an accent you’ll find very familiar.

As Yevgeny Yevtushenko notes, “A poet’s autobiography is his poetry. Anything else is just a footnote.” Despite his nationality (Russian), I’m inclined to agree.

WHO: Scott Bywater
WHAT: Presence: Volume 3 poetry reading & book launch
WHERE: Baitong, #7 Street 360
WHEN: 7:30pm November 7
WHY: “Art is the lie that enables us to realise the truth” –Pablo Picasso

 

It’s all just a farce, isn’t it?

Farce is a word I most often associate with work meetings, past relationships and conversations with my mother.  Apparently, it is also a form of theatre (who knew?) and it is being brought to the capital again by the Phnom Penh Players on October 25 and 26 in More Diplomatic Affairs, an original farce making its global premiere, here in Phnom Penh.  Set in an unnamed embassy, the Players’ latest offering was written by Emma Triller, who promises that “More of the situations are real than you would believe.” It’s the follow-up to last year’s extremely successful Diplomatic Affairs, which became the topic of many water-cooler conversations in embassies around Phnom Penh.

Being an eager, young, want-to-be reporter I stuck a Post-It note that said ‘Press’ to an ill-fitting hat from a Caltex station and this is what I learned:

Farce is a freewheeling, fast-paced comedy involving ridiculous characters in ridiculous situations. The best example and most successful non-stage version in pop culture would be Fawlty Towers, but despite its laugh-a-second style the genre has set requirements and a proper recipe: take a handful of stock characters who portray typical human deficiencies (pride, greed, lust, deceit, jealousy, snobbery, etc). Add a protagonist who is flawed, but trying to do the right thing. Throw in a situation that involves telling a lie, that requires another lie, and let it simmer.

Farce has more set rules than any other form of theatre: it’s like a piece of music or a sonnet. At the same time it can be written about anything. Whatever the cover up, mistress in the cupboard, two dinner dates on the same night, it’s still a farce. The location and complications for a farce are completely open.  “As a setting, an emergency room – or in our play, an embassy – is a perfect location. They are both places no one wants to really visit and there are so many things that happen behind the scenes that you don’t see,” says Jeannette Robinson, who is acting in her fourth Phnom Penh Players’ production. “Any of the situations  in our performance would be really stressful in real life,” adds Emma Triller, “but people deal with so much stress that sometimes they just need to laugh – and laughing at someone else’s work problems is always fun.”

The action of a farce is propelled by panic, with characters lying to save face, which multiplies their problems as they now have to deal not only with the original situation but also the lies causing them to behave even more erratically. Writing a farce is no simple task: it’s like spinning a spider web. Each situation has a story of its own, but they are all connected. “Emma wrote an amazing script,” says Emily Marques, who is returning to the unnamed embassy with the accent that made her the lead in several audience members’ dreams last year. “The way that everything plays off what came before it… It requires a certain type of writer.”

Despite the common ground of laughter, the world of farce is very different to that of comedy. Comedy is about funny lines. In a farce no one tells jokes, they are too busy slamming doors and running around in circles. The humour comes more from entrances, exits, false bravado and obvious lies. Phrases like ’Yes, sir’ and ‘No problem’ are likely to get the biggest laughs.

Farce is in fact more akin to tragedy. It’s the same complications: people put in impossible situations, but with different results. Jumping in a grave is tragic in Hamlet, whereas tampering with a dead body was farcical in last year’s Diplomatic Affairs.

Farce needs the most generous actors: no one stands centre-stage giving a monologue or philosophising about their problems. “Every character has their moment,” says Jeanette. “You come on the stage, deliver your line and get out of the way.”

Despite the success of television programmes such as Fawlty Towers and ’Allo, ’Allo, farce remains a uniquely theatrical genre. After all, there’s nothing like sitting in a theatre full of people and watching someone’s day go to Hell.

WHO: The Phnom Penh Players
WHAT: Diplomatic Affairs II
WHERE: Russian Cultural Centre, corner of Norodom Blvd & Street 222
WHEN: 7:30pm October 25 & 26
WHY: Life’s just one big farce, isn’t it?

Tickets ($10) are on sale now at Baitong Restaurant, Street 360; Willow Boutique Hotel, Street 21; Bopha Titanic Restaurant, Riverside; Cha Nails, Sothearos Boulevard and Tips & Toes, Street 278.