Bestial Village
Aug 12th, 2006 by Jinja
is the name given by Royal Decree to a town where 20-30 outraged people killed an abrasive French tax collector, Resident Bardez. The incident serves to illustrate many aspects of the time of colonial rule. (The show flyers say ‘Miserable Village’ for some reason.)
Now Amrita Performing Arts has turned it into Cambodian Yike ‘opera’ – singing theater. It’s an innovative attempt to use a classic format to discuss modern day issues.
A great article from Michelle Vachon in today’s Cambodia Daily follows the publication of a book on the incident (By Doek Keam and Doeuk Om) in 1987 to the the adaptation of it by Chean Chor Dapheak and Chan Sarin. (Amrita also cites a 1964 novelization of the story.)
Last show is tonight and I’m gonna check it out! I’d actually been turned off by the title – there’s been plenty of ‘miserable’ stories already. Komsawt nah? No thanks.
Yike can be very stylized so it will be a challenge for the creators and the performers to be true to history and true to Yike performance patterns. Rock on.
If I’d known it was a historical fusion play, I’d have scoped it out sooner. (Hope someone will film this, at some point. There’s too many poorly dubbed Chinese kung fu dramas on TV, why not some more local content? )
http://www.sangsalapak.org.kh/whatson/2006/08/lakhaon-yike-by-amrita-performing-arts.html
