The Key Features Of Likay Performance And Its Reciprocity To Thai Soap Televised Drama

In Thailand, traditional theatre and dance are fully intertwined. Like, a form of popular folk theatre, has been well-known for Thai audiences since Ayutthaya period. Despite the fact that the origin of Likay is unclear, its popularity has developed from time to time. There are several definition of Likay such as a traditional performing arts, a mixture of Thai traditional and classical arts or Thai theatrical drama. In fact, Likay has its key features which represent the authenticated Likay performance.

To begin with, Likay is mainly about participation especially between performers and audiences. Due to the fact that Likay often performed on the temporary stages at temple fairs throughout the land, several people can attend the show. The audiences, including the young and elderly, can interact with the performers. People can also let their children playing on the stage while performing the show and Likay performers can interact with them by improvising dialogue to speak about them. The more interaction between them, the more extra money performers tend to receive during the show. The Likay performers have to earn their living by setting up the performance themselves in enclosed theatres where admission is charged. Besides, Likay has been famous among Thai audiences though ages because of its adjustment to the viewers’ taste. This leads to the popularity for the audiences. Likay is performed mainly for entertainment just like the other performances. Likay has its own stylisation which differ itself from other Thai theatre performing arts.

Firstly, the Likay repertoires are mostly predictable as they are originated from abridged monarchical legends and fairy tales. As a result, most audiences know the plot lines of the show as likay troupes often perform the same plot. Its iterations allow audiences to compare the troupes with one another to find the best one. There are generally five types of main characters in Likay performances which are the hero, heroine, villain, villainess and a clown. Supplementary characters include father and mother of protagonists. As the plots are mostly shortened monarchical story, these characters are often seen as kings or queens. The minor characters can be performed by the inexperienced performers as well.

Another feature of Likay performance is beauty both in image and sound. Sparkling costume, glittering headdresses and shining crowns are symbolic of Likay. It also often toys with meaning through exaggerated speech, dress and even the expression. For instance, enjoyment of exaggerations of reality is depicted though lights and sounds, movement, hand gestures and costume. Generally, Likay often perform based on Thai royal family and the moral of the story portray a basic Thai belief in Buddhist philosophies. At the end of the story, good deeds beget good results, while bad deeds beget bad results. Despite lack of likelihood, most of the audiences enjoy watching Likay to focus mainly on the hand gesture, glittering costumes and dialogue improvising. It can be concluded that the principle aim of Likay is to appeal and rouse audiences’ emotions. In 1955, Thai television was established with a variety of types of programs. Comedy and vaudeville were also broadcasted in order to appeal to majority of Likay audiences. Because of Likay’s aesthetic quality is appealing, its motifs have been deliberately employed in television dramas so as to entertain mass audiences. It can be said that Likay had a strong influence on Thai television soap dramas as they contained old folk-popular messages which were similar to Likay. Even though the rise of new television dramas rocketed, the plot structure and contend of television’s soap dramas in Thailand confined themselves to Likay narratives.

One major factor demonstrating Likay’s influence on Thai soap dramas is the one-dimensional characters. Good characters principally manifest their values in their appearances. The heroine is always beautiful throughout the story no matter what she is doing. As mentioned above, this is to show her righteous as a result of her good deeds. On the contrary, the villainess must express her mean character exaggeratedly so as to show the audiences that they are an antagonist. For short, the main characters of television’s soap dramas are similar to Likay except the shining costumes and head-dressed. Storylines of Likay and soap dramas often evolve love affairs, jealousy, battles and vengeance. These repertoires have been serially re-made. The happy-ending, romantic formulas often seen in Likay reveal the internal truths of heroes and heroines who eventually find their solution to their problem. Innate virtue is an important symbol of heroism. It can be claimed that contents and styles of Thai traditional theatre, especially Likay, appeared in Thai television’s soap drama. Popular theatre in the past could deal with any new genre as long as the old content of everyday experience had a place to fit in. Despite the fact that television’s soap operas have steadily adopt Likay’s dramatic formulas. The main plot of the story, including the end, mostly base on the Buddhist belief that emphasis the statement “goodness always conquers evil”. The drama “Dao Phrasook”, for example, is the typical soap dramas in Thailand for many factor. Even though the plot of the story mostly lacks of plausibility, the mass audience, however, enjoy watching the show. The popularity of this drama reached 38 percentages from country’s broadcast rating. This proves that Likay and soap dramas have an interrelation with each other.

In conclusion, television’s soap dramas reproduce familar stories in the same way Likay does. Most audiences know the plot lines and how the story is going to end before the show even begin as Likay troupes often perform the same stories again and again. Watching either Likay or soap dramas, the audiences receive the atmosphere of fun.