In Thailand, traditional theatre and modern theatre are categorized separately from
each other. While traditional theatre still performs in traditional ways in which dance
and music are used as the main elements to tell a story, the term ‘modern theatre’ or
Lakhon Wethi Samai Mai refers to theatre which is performed in Western theatre’s
style.
The awareness of the dominance of the influence of western theatre on Thai theatre
has encouraged some Thai artists to look for native Thai material in order to create an
identity for modern Thai theatre. These artists claim that translated western plays are
inaccessible to Thai audiences due to cultural differences, and so turn to their own
cultural theatre roots. These artists share a similar interest in Thai traditional theatre;
they believe that traditional dramatic literature could better communicate with Thai
audiences than western plays. Therefore, they adapt traditional literature to be
performed on the modern stage: in addition to a text, some traditional theatrical
elements are also applied in their performances
Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the different methods used by
contemporary Thai artists to approach traditional literatures. By drawing on examples
of adaptations of traditional Thai literature, I aim to show the potential of traditional
literature to become an efficient source for the creation of a contemporary Thai script
and how adaptation of traditional play could not only be the initial step in creating an
identity for the modern Thai theatre, but also a significant way to prompt Thai
playwrights to discover an originality for their contemporary scripts that avoids a
predominant reliance on the Western theatre.