that, as this version was originally written, a narrator sang much of the story while dancers "spoke the language of the dance," with some ad-libbing between verses. Each verse, as indicated in the translation of Act One, usually focuses 011 one figure. Country people tell me that the last time Sang Thong was given in their village, each dancer sang his own part, describing both the situation and his feelings as he danced.
In the 1968 National Theater production of two of the later acts of Sang Thong, the main narration was sung in long verses, by a single voice alternating with a chorus line by line. In short verses there was only the single voice. The narrators sat with the percussion orchestra, just offstage. With them sat a man specially skilled in reading the lines quickly, so that the narrators could hear and repeat them. Unlike the Western prompter, the khon bawk hot was constantly active. The narrators, however, did not simply repeat what he said, but put the words to an elaborated melody and rhythm which would in turn fit with the dance. The dancers spoke their own words. (These are indicated by quotation marks in the translation of Act One, which follows.)
As Dhanit Yupho has observed, the chorus developed in connection with costuming. Thai court dancers for centuries used elaborate costumes with many traditional pieces. These costumes were so intricate that special people were needed to dress the dancers, who were, then as now, sewn into their costumes. After the costumers had performed their duties there was nothing for them to do, so they were utilized as a chorus to alternate in the narration with the primary singer. When he became director-general of the Fine Arts Department twenty years ago, Dhanit Yupho urged dancers to help dress each other as an economy measure. The tradition of the chorus, however, remained.24
As the translation of "The Birth of Prince Sang" indicates, specialized music is played between many of the verses by an ensemble consisting, in its simplest form, of a xylophone-like instrument with wooden strips, two types of drums, a reed pipe, and a small pair of cymbals. Occasionally a melody is played on one or more string instruments. This music, each rhythm of which is significantly familiar to a Thai audience, can indicate changes of scene, making scenery unnecessary. Narration and music suffice to indicate changes of time and place to the audience.
According to the emotion to be expressed, a single instrument performs, or several are played in unison. There is thus specialized music to follow the actions of a person of high status, to indicate that people of low status are leaving the scene, to express sadness, to indicate an important happening (often one which involves magic), to follow a person of high rank in the city or country, or to express the soft, sweet feelings of a love scene. Occasionally the music may accompany the speaking player, as in a love scene, but more frequently it is interspersed between verses.
Reading
Some time ago I came across a young Thai woman reading Sang Thong in a lovely singing voice. No one else was in the room. Her reading was in the thamnawng style, which children learn early in their school years as they begin to study poetry, giving distinctive rhythm and melody to different types of Thai poetry. Shyly the young Thai woman, who had been brought up in the countryside, ventured that she had been considered a good reader when she was a child. Having spent many hours watching lakhon, she had acquired its thamnawng style.
Rama II and his poets wrote Sang Thong to be sung aloud. They used a form called klon bot lakhon, in which the syllables in a line vary between six and nine. In recent years, klon bot lakhon, like other forms of poetry, has been written in two double columns. Thus what Westerners would consider a "line" begins in the left column; the next line begins on the same level in the right column. The klon hot lakhon form uses rhymes, sometimes occurring between ends of lines, but more frequently between the end of a line in one column and the middle of a line in the other column.
Alliteration and assonance, valued in Thai daily speech, are used often in klon hot lakhon, as in other forms of poetry in Thailand.
THE LIVING TRADITION IN THAILAND
Although "The Birth of Prince Sang," the first act of The Golden Prince of the Conch Shell, is no longer presented on stages in Thailand, other episodes of Sang Thong are currently produced at the National Theater, satirized by university students, and played zestfully-following the story, if not the text—at the shrine of Bangkok's guardian spirit and at town temple-fairs. All nine episodes have recently been published as a "cremation volume" honoring a respected official. City and village children become acquainted with the first act early in their schooling and with other acts in later years, as they continue their studies.
The National Theater
Sang Thong as part of the "great" tradition might have been lost when the end of the absolute monarchy in Thailand (1932) made extensive royal patronage of dancers and musicians no longer possible. However, with slow, painful efforts the National Theater was formed. So popular has Sang Thong been that in 1954 a version combining two episodes, "The Marriage of the King's Daughters" (Acts Five and Six) and "Hunting and Fishing" (Act Seven), ran through 127 performances. In 1960 one of the later acts of Sang Thong, "The Polo Match," was given. All of these productions used very elaborate scenery, unlike the lakhon nok staging by the country folk or by the court of Rama II.
Honoring the 200th anniversary (1968) of the birth of Rama II, "The Marriage of the King's Daughters" and "Hunting and Fishing" were presented in the open-air theater surrounded by the brilliantly colored roofs of the National Museum. Young and old crowded to the simple stage, children so close that they could almost touch the actors and actresses. No scenery or props were used except the traditional couch for Thai dance-drama. The narrator, chorus, actors, and actresses followed exactly the Rama II text.
University Satire
Also honoring the anniversary of Rama II, Thammasat University students presented a version of Sang Thong, "The Mother-in-Law," based on the episode in which Queen Months tries to persuade Prince Sang (disguised as a Negrito) to compete with Indra. Written by the rapier-like pen of author and journalist M. R. Kukrit Pramoj, "The Mother-in-Law" was acted with cutting satire on current figures, which M. R. Kukrit feels was part of the earliest lakhon nok style of the country people.
Shrine Offerings
Hidden behind encroaching modern buildings in the heart of Bangkok is a small shrine to its guardian spirit, the chao phaw lak mueang. Since widely known plays as well as new ones are given here continually, an episode from Sang Thong is frequently presented.
On weekends the little enclosure around the pole representing the spirit is so crowded that one can hardly move toward the tables covered with eggs, meat, steamed rice cakes, and other foods, or toward the stage where gaily dressed men and women dance, sing, and speak in the likay style. Performers of likay, a popular dramatic form developed in the 20th century, use some of the lakhon dance motions, but less artfully than do performers of lakhon nok or lakhon nai. Originally likay performers were often taught by court dancers, but this is no longer true. The likay style is freer than that of either lakhon nok or lakhon nai, and permits more ad-libbing; there is more speaking and less singing, fewer musical instruments are used (the musicians are limited to percussion instruments only), and certain sounds and intonations distinguish likay diction. Since common people find likay great fun, they feel it is an appropriate style in which to play an episode of the Sang Thong story for the spirit they wish to please.
According to the classical dancer Malulee Pinsuvana, a poor woman with some dramatic skill might go to a person who wants to repay the spirit for his good fortune. When she asks if she can play some part in return for a small amount of money, he may ask if she can play one of the characters in the story of Sang Thong, Invariably the answer will be, "I can." The date will be set; with little practice of dance steps or lines, she will play, not according to any text but from memory of the story, using some of the lines she may have heard from the Rama II version.
Although educated Thais say there is no
