PPP reports on The Bassac Theatre
The latest online edition of the Phnom Penh Post (Volume 16 Issue 17, Aug 24 - Sep 6) carries a story about the end of the Bassac Theater in Phnom Penh. Click here to read the full story and other free articles or click on Comments to see the full article.
Last act for Bassac Theater - by Dan Poynton and Cheang Sokha
The death knell has sounded for the crumbling Bassac Theater - an architectural gem of Cambodia's Golden Era of the '60s and the favorite creation of its revered architect, Vann Molyvann. The 315 musicians, dancers and singers, who use the shell of the Preah Suramarit National Theatre to rehearse and who live in the Dey Krahorm squatters community nearby, were told by Ministry of Culture officials to leave by the end of the month. They will be relocated to a building on Mao Tse Tung Blvd, but the performers say the new site is too far away and inadequate for their dramatic artistic performances. [continued]...
Last act for Bassac Theater - by Dan Poynton and Cheang Sokha
The death knell has sounded for the crumbling Bassac Theater - an architectural gem of Cambodia's Golden Era of the '60s and the favorite creation of its revered architect, Vann Molyvann. The 315 musicians, dancers and singers, who use the shell of the Preah Suramarit National Theatre to rehearse and who live in the Dey Krahorm squatters community nearby, were told by Ministry of Culture officials to leave by the end of the month. They will be relocated to a building on Mao Tse Tung Blvd, but the performers say the new site is too far away and inadequate for their dramatic artistic performances. [continued]...
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In the wake of President George W. Bush's comments this week about the “killing fields” of Cambodia that followed the 1975 U.S. pullout from Vietnam and the region, there have been a flurry of articles worthy of a look, including the following:
Flashback: 'The Unnewsworthy Holocaust: TV News and Terror in Cambodia'
- by Brent Baker on the NewsBusters.org website. Click here.
- by Brent Baker on the NewsBusters.org website. Click here.
Pol Pot And Kissinger - by Edward S. Herman on the peoplesvoice.org website. Click here.
If only we had stayed the course in Cambodia by buermann on flagrancy.net. Click here.
Returning to CambodiaKilling fields of media fallacies - by Peter W. Rodman. Click here.
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Last act for Bassac Theater
By Dan Poynton and Cheang Sokha
Phnom Penh Post (Volume 16 Issue 17, August 24 - September 6, 2007)
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/
The death knell has sounded for the crumbling Bassac Theater - an architectural gem of Cambodia's Golden Era of the '60s and the favorite creation of its revered architect, Vann Molyvann.
The 315 musicians, dancers and singers, who use the shell of the Preah Suramarit National Theatre to rehearse and who live in the Dey Krahorm squatters community nearby, were told by Ministry of Culture officials to leave by the end of the month.
They will be relocated to a building on Mao Tse Tung Blvd, but the performers say the new site is too far away and inadequate for their dramatic artistic performances.
Like Angkor Wat's Ta Prohm Temple, much of the theater has been swallowed up by jungle. It survived the war, but was gutted by fire in 1994. Still, it is much loved by the performers and its architect holds no hope that it will escape demolition.
"I regret losing this building very much," Molyvann said in an interview. "When the artists leave it'll be declared off limits and they'll destroy the building."
"I don't want the company to destroy it because it's a fresh, open place for performing and training," Molyvann said. "They didn't consult [me] about the design of the new building. I don't think it will be up to standard and a building people cannot use is a waste of money."
The structure officially known as the Preah Suramarit National Theatre, inaugurated in 1968, is said to be the favorite work of the architect who also designed Chaktomuk Conference Hall and the National Sports Complex. The building's peaked pyramid roof over the main stage and flat split level design for seating were inspired by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
The 81-year-old architect on August 16 made an emotional visit to the building - located in the Tonle Bassac squatters area, near the Phnom Penh Center. "Molyvann couldn't say anything," said one of the building's caretakers who asked not to be identified. "He just wandered around the place, watched some rehearsals, and left."
According to newspaper reports, the Ministry of Culture agreed in 2005 to have tycoon Kith Meng renovate the theatre in exchange for land around the building. Meng - who owns the Cambodiana Hotel and is partners in many ventures including ANZ Royal Bank - would return the building after an unspecified period of time. The type of renovation was not disclosed by the Ministry of Culture.
Kith Meng refused to comment, saying all questions should be directed to the ministry.
Since it was ravaged by accidental fire in 1994, time has been running out for the building. Much of the theater now lacks a roof.
"The building is old and dilapidated, and we are afraid that it will collapse sometime soon," said Ouk Socheat, under secretary of state for the Ministry.
"I don't think renovation has been on the table for years," said Darryl Collins, co-author of the recently published Building Cambodia: New Khmer Architecture 1953-1970.
Just before the ministry made the deal with Meng in 2005, Amrita Performing Arts led a petition to the King to save the building.
"We met the King and tried to find a way to restore the theatre," said Suon Bunrith, cultural coordinator for Amrita. "We were surprised to hear two months after this that the theatre had been sold. There is no guarantee about its restoration from Meng. We couldn't get any concrete information about that, and I'm sure even the director of the national theater had nothing concrete."
Whatever the fate of the building, the artists are unhappy to be losing their open air rehearsal stage.
"We have not been allowed to see [the new building]," another of the building's caretakers said. "We heard the ceiling is much lower, there'll only be one place to rehearse, and the building is not up to standard for performing. We have many separate places here, because we have many kinds of performance - like Yike and L'khoan Bassac [traditional forms of theater and dance]. The new place will be too small and noisy - they're making us live in a mouse-hole."
"We know the new place is not as large as the old one," said the ministry's Socheat. "But they will be able to perform for the public in this new place. If we can, we will build other buildings for them in the future. We know they have specific performing groups so they need different places, but we cannot exceed our limits."
The ministry has offered $300 in compensation to each artist. The artists say they should each receive $700, as was offered to Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA) staff when its northern premises were moved from Tuol Kork in 2005. The new building's location on Mao Tse Tung Boulevard would incur high travel costs, they said.
"It's not fair, as we have worked here since 1979," said one of the caretakers. "We are just asking for money to support our families. All 315 of us sent a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen a month ago, but we've had no intervention yet."
The artists said 55 musicians from the theatre are supposed to go to Gyeongju, South Korea to perform in September. "They were forced to sign for the $300 compensation, otherwise they couldn't go," the caretaker said.
"This $300 is the limit of the ministry's budget," said Socheat. "We have sympathy for them, but we cannot help them any more than that."
Heavy emotion surrounds what looks like the Bassac Theater's last curtain call. A stone's throw from the theater is another Molyvann masterpiece whose fate is also uncertain - Bo Ding, the avant-garde apartments from the same era.
Molyvann said when he was at Bassac Theater he met some of his former architecture students who were forced to move out of the old RUFA site at Tuol Kork to a new center in Russei Keo.
"The new site is too far away so they have now come to study at the Bassac Theater. But now they'll have to move again. They have no proper place - they're just like street kids."
Reproduced without permission. Copyright of Phnom Penh Post http://www.phnompenhpost.com/
1:23 PM
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