THE 3 BAHT OPERA (#reportage #portraiture #bangkok #culture #cheapnightout)
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Behind the curtain at...
The 3 Baht Opera
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It was already late, the rain had been drenching the city all day, there was computer work to be done. I was definitely not going out.
But then she called. That friend who always calls from somewhere I've never been, even if she's only just down the road. That friend who always sees what others don't see, who dwells in a state of perpetual wonderment, whose delight always infects me.
I was definitely not going out, especially not in the pissing rain to some interminable Chinese opera on the other side of town at 10 at night when there was work to be done.
Except, now she'd asked, of course I was. -
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They told me it didn't matter that there was hardly anyone watching the show. “The actors are employed by the temple to entertain the Dead during festivals. The presence of anyone actually living in the auditorium is merely a bonus”.
But the more I looked, the more it seemed like I had strayed into a mythical place in which all the participants had passed on long ago. A bunch of actors performing an endless elegy for themselves, watched by no-one except ghosts.
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Being the shameless self-publicist I am, I proudly posted the opera photos on Facebook and earned a not-unimpressive 13 likes for my efforts.
More impressively, the work somehow got picked up from Facebook and ended up in two magazines, one of which – a respected English-language monthly called Bangkok101– ran the essay as their cover story, and presented me with not just one, but three £20 notes as a reward. -
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Who says you can't
get rich and famous
from photography? -
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