A dramatic feast of many cultures

By GILBERT WONG

Desdemona is Othello's wife, right? Up on stage in Singapore's Victoria Theatre is another Desdemona, one wrought from cultural entanglement.

Singaporean theatre director Ong Keng Sen's Desdemona, commissioned for the Adelaide and Singapore International Arts festivals this year, is a two-hour cacophonous journey that has the audience continually jumping to comprehend art forms ranging from Indian kathakali and Yogyanese court dance forms to contemporary video and installation art.

Ten performers speak in five different languages. Ridiculous e-mails flash on two giant video screens, provide an ironic counterpoint to the action on stage and purport to be the real responses of the performers and director to the process from which Desdemona was derived.

The outcome is both ancient and modern, Eastern and Western. If there is a clear message it is that culture is a moving feast and nowhere more so than in the rapidly evolving cultures of Asia.

Ong Keng Sen, a stylish 37-year-old former lawyer, is artistic director of TheatreWorks, one of four major contemporary theatre companies that put the lie to the image of the city state as a cultural desert.

Desdemona is the second of a planned trilogy. The first was a version of Lear - Keng Sen's version, written by Japanese playwright Rio Kishida and focusing on Goneril, not the king.

"Both Lear and Desdemona were rewritten as a response to the Western canon," Keng Sen says. "It began as a way to appropriate Shakespeare to say something about Asia." As well, it's a deliberate response to the way theatre directors like Peter Brook have appropriated Asian and Indian legends and theatre techniques.

Though clearly the standout theatrical work in terms of originality at the Singapore International Arts Festival, Desdemona suffered from audiences who left early and critics who found the juxtapositions and multiple languages more "sound than fury."

Keng Sen agrees that he might be ahead of his audiences. "I don't think that reviews are painful. There's a need for the theatre to be a place of political discourse and that's not happening in most cultures. I would say that it's because they see the theatre as emotional escapism."

That holds no interest for him. He prefers the intellectual games for which Desdemona is a vehicle - the very name an appropriation by Asia of a Western master playwright's work.

Desdemona is a good example of Singapore's plans to recreate itself as a global arts hub. In March the Ministry of Information and the Arts produced its Renaissance City report, which has become government policy.

The model was motivated by the same concerns as New Zealand's less favourably received Heart of the Nation report.

Renaissance City aims to establish Singapore as a global arts city that supports the creative and knowledge-based industries and talent.

Spinoffs include the realisation of the potential of the "cultural dollar." The estimate is that for every dollar spent on a cultural event another $1.70 is spent on meals, accommodation and other services.

The report also refers to how the arts will create "cultural ballast" to reinforce Singaporean national identity and sense of belonging. The National Arts Council has received generous funding to support major arts companies, set up a New Artist Discovery scheme, provided studio space for established artists and established regional awards and festivals.

The Government is working on how to encourage corporate sponsorship through tax incentives and offers a 25 per cent tax rebate on profits for five to 10 years for major foreign art and cultural organisations which set up in Singapore.