Richard Chua (蔡兩俊) proudly displays a censored copy of his script for Generations (同輩), a play that makes its Taiwan debut on Sunday as part of the Taipei Fringe Festival (臺北藝穗節).
“[Singapore] has tough censorship laws ... But it’s really good for commercial theater because you throw a couple of stones at the government and audiences love it. They say, ‘oh great, you are criticizing the government for us,’” the Singapore-based director said in an interview on Wednesday night. “But our fringe theater hasn’t been too active in doing this.”
Really? After taking one look at the heavily marked-up script, it’s difficult not to think that this is precisely what Chua had in mind when he wrote it. Indeed, Chua has earned a reputation for breaking the boundaries of what the conservative city-state deems acceptable. A play that he wrote in 2004, for example, was banned outright for trying to “change people’s metaphors,” Chua’s euphemism for morals.
So what’s the hullabaloo about? Generations, which premiered in Singapore in 2008, starts out innocuously enough: A gay son lives with his single mother, who is estranged from a husband whose mentality is “feudal Chinese conservative.” In other words, he is a serial womanizer, Chua said.
As the story proceeds, the extremely lonely mother pressures her son to take on the father’s role as companion, in and out of the bedroom.
“I think it’s humanly possible. But it doesn’t make it morally OK. And the son, as a gay man, would he give in to his mom even though, in his metaphor, the female body will never arouse him?” Chua said.
In addition to taking aim at conservative Singaporean mores, the play is also a jab at that city-state’s insular gay community, which Chua portrays as populated by preening whiners who aren’t radical enough for his tastes.
“Singapore’s gay community is pretty much bourgeoisie ... Saying how everyone looks down on us and gay rights and blah-blah-blah. You have all the ... beautiful stuff, [and they] end up in this posh coffee shop drinking tea and having fun. So who is suffering? Here you have clever, educated people who can justify their positions and write statements in the newspaper. They say they are being discriminated against, that they are victims, but they are such a glamorous bunch of victims,” he said.
By presenting a working-class gay man from a broken home willing to sacrifice his sexuality for his mother, Chua hopes that the gay community will become more inclusive.
As Taiwanese society is considerably more liberal than Singapore’s, Chua is freer to draw upon the original script, including, possibly, an on-stage depiction of incest.
“We struggled with the last scene. Should the son just give it to the mother? And how would he give it? And if we just do it like that, is this really morally wrong?” Chua said.
As rehearsals began after press time, this preview cannot comment on the production’s aesthetic qualities. However, Generations tackles many of society’s biggest taboos, so the writing and acting had better be convincing as the play is in danger of coming across as a headline-grabbing stunt.
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