Phnom Penh’s newest theatre collective, the Lo-Key Theatre Company, returns to the Box Office’s Speakeasy Theatre on Saturday 28 October for a night of new writing – with a surprise twist.
The idea behind these events is to showcase several short plays on a single night, for one night only. As the team say, you miss it, you miss out!
“Each month when we do these, they are around a different theme,” explains Rob Appleby, director of the two plays showing this Saturday. “Last time we picked the theme out of a hat, and it was ‘ballad’. So the challenge is for directors to either find a show around that theme or create one themselves.”
Rob says he doesn’t want to give too much away, but Saturday’s double bill features one comedy and one tragedy, each around 15 minutes long, and both on the ballad theme.
In the first play, comedy Punch Drunk Love, which incorporates live music onstage, a member of a punk band decides he wants the group to do a love song. Playing the lead singer is Jack Dodd, a stalwart of the Phnom Penh music scene who Rob says “just has great charisma as a frontman, so it works so well.” The role will no doubt come naturally to Jack, whose years of preparation for the role involve insisting he was in fact the sole frontman of the much-loved Goldilocks Zone and Complicated Business, to the perpetual chagrin of his former bandmates.
The second one-act play, a tragedy called Roulette, centres around four glamorous ladies participating in a mysterious game…although “this is all I can say!” insists Rob.
But the bigger vision of the Lo-Stakes Showcase, as the night is called, is to create a welcoming environment to rebuilt Phnom Penh’s theatre community. “The idea behind this series of shows is to have a format where people can dip their toes in,” explains Rob. “Try it out a bit, see if they like it. Anyone can join, sign up either to be an actor or a director and put on a bunch of shows all on the same night. And yeah, the idea is really to reforge that theatre community within the city.”
The first showcase took place in August, but Lo-Key plan to invite those interested in acting and directing – whether experienced theatre-makers or newbies – to participate each month. The theatre company will match them together to make a cast and crew for each show, with a month to create something totally new. That said, writers/directors with ideas already fleshed out and ready to go, and even with a cast lined up, are also welcome to join in. The main purpose is to bring the theatre community together and create space for experimenting with ideas.
“I basically want people to come along and hopefully have a good time – hopefully they enjoy it – and hopefully, they think hey, maybe this is something I could potentially get involved in,” says Rob. “What we want from people is to be inspired and to think about maybe joining the theatre community in Phnom Penh!”
Saturday’s show will be especially poignant, with the cast and crew paying tribute to Sok Khieu Samithi, a founding member of the group and co-director of Lo-Key’s first one-act play night in August. Samathi, who was just 22 years old, passed away from cancer on Sunday. In an obituary earlier this week, the Khmer Times, where Samathi previously interned as a reporter, described him as a “prodigy of Cambodian literature” who published his first book, an English-language science fiction novel, when he was just 11 years old, followed by three more by the time he finished school. Samathi wrote and directed his first play, 12-8 last year, which was set in Khmer cornershop and performed at Java Creative Café in Tuol Tompoung. “He really wanted to go full force until the very end,” says Rob.
This Saturday there will be two chances to see Lo-Key’s showcase, once at 6pm and again at 8pm, at Speakeasy Theatre, attached to Box Office. Tickets cost $10 for both plays and include a drink from the Box Office bar (we recommend opting for one of their a very lovely craft beers). For those interested in becoming part of the Lo-Key Showcase project, the team will be on hand to explain how to sign up on the night.
Lo-Stakes Showcase, Speakeasy Theatre @ Box Office, 6pm & 8pm. $10 incl one drink. Tickets available from the Box Office website, or call +855 15 831 953 / email theboxofficepp@gmail.com