Likay, Thailand's comic opera

With thanks to Scott Crouse, and a comment he made to me on another blog, I've decided to create this new one, and with this first post.

Scott had simply asked me whether it was possible to leave comments on that blog, and the answer was: no, one of the faults of that blogging system (Tumblr), among others that I had become frustrated with.

I had started that original blog at the beginning of August (2010) with the idea to post an image per day of Thailand, a way of showing the thousands of images I had accumulated over the years of Thailand and its many places, familiar and unfamiliar, and its people, all from different angles, viewpoints and perspectives.

I was successful in being able to maintain a daily rate of imagery, and soon found I had a number of followers; many images were being reblogged on Tumblr (one gets notified) and a number were seen on non-Tumblr blogs (un-notified, but soon found).

With this switch to Blogger, I'm not sure I can maintain a daily rate of posting (I will try) as there is more space for text "description", and I hadn't intended the blog to be wordy at all, wanting all focus on the images themselves. But the absence of viewer's ability to comment (thanks, Scott) forced my hand to the change.

Let's see how we go . . .

Drum roll . . . . kicking off with these images of a Likay performance taken at a village party in Surin province.

Likay is a theatrical derivative of Thai Dance (Ram Thai), which is Thailand's main form of dramatic art with two forms: classical and folk. Likay is considered more on the folk side, and it has been said to be Thailand's comic opera for the masses.

Costumes are based on elements of classical Thai dress, highly colorful and often comical. Akin to Shakespeare, men normally play the female roles, usually heavily made up, and wearing clothes clearly not fitted for them.

Likay has been described as "drama of the people, for the people and by the people", with storylines being traditional, serious, lewd and bawdy.

Drawn from a number of sources, whether traditional tales or to meet current social needs, it is all bound together by the performers's skills and improvisations, the songs and the fast-paced action.

Many Likay stars have been as famous as the western celebrity of today, drawing huge crowds and a fan base that would be the envy of actors and movie stars.

The popularity of Likay is understandable, it "speaks" the language of the people, it is usually improvised on the spot using local dialects and anecdotes which the audience can instantly relate to, and it frequently contains innuendo and hidden messages with every statement conveying two or more messages which all "sophisticated" likay audiences instantly grasp with bursts and hoots of laughter.

If anyone is interested, here is the link to the now "deceased" Tumblr blog.