Theatre and Seduction: the Politics of Aesthetic Judgements in Thailand

Abstract

This paper is presented in honour of Doug Miles, who taught me as an undergraduate student, supervised my Honours thesis on Balinese kinship and encouraged me to do fieldwork on theatrical forms in Thailand. Doug was my supervisor in the initial stages of fieldwork in Bangkok and stimulated my interest in theatre as an anthropological enterprise that could reveal the fundamental dimensions of South and Southeast Asian cultures. The present paper explores the seductive appeal of likay, a popular Thai theatre genre that can be appropriated to ensure commercial, ritual and political gain. Drawing on some of the arguments made in my doctoral dissertation on likay, I demonstrate how the very qualities that make it attractive as a political and religious strategy, its sensuous appeal and crowd-drawing capacity, make it vulnerable to negative aesthetic, ideological and moral evaluations by those in power. Following Doug, I stress that theatre, like any other form of cultural production, must be situated within its historical and political context. My fascination with the concept of charisma, which I use to illuminate the seductive aspects of likay, also reflects Doug's influence.