Nophand Boonyai's new play, Utopian Malady, is not based on a true story _ although it is about a country's leader trying to get out of a controversial mess he (not she) has found himself in.
Utopian Malady is a play about three writers who are kidnapped by a secret organisation and forced to help their prime minister out of a tricky situation.
Like his previous play, last year's Adoption, about competitors in a game show trying to win the chance to adopt a child, his new work is very much a comment on current affairs _ even if it's unintentional.
"The [similarities between] the current political situation and this play are purely coincidental," says Nophand. "But it's great for publicity."
Pattarasuda Anuman Rajadhon, Pawit Mahasarinand and Robin Schroeter play writers who are kidnapped by a secret organisation and forced to create a plot to help their prime minister.
"The original concept was about a secret organisation having a meeting about how to run the country," explains Nophand. "They had complete power but were more concerned about the banalities of everyday life such as bad traffic, celebrity gossip and skin-lightening. These people would just be sitting there wearing veils so you couldn't see their faces."
Then Nophand combined this idea with another concept he had a couple of years ago about "hamburger script writers" _ the term he used for writing "junk", or dumbed-down content for the masses.
"These writers are kidnapped by radicals and are forced to admit to their crimes," says Nophand. "They are forced to consume the junk that they have created and it doesn't end well for the writers."
But because this idea alone wasn't entertaining enough for him, Nophand eventually decided to "mesh these two ridiculous ideas together" and create something newer and more challenging in what became Utopian Malady.
"I had a clear picture of what would happen and how it would end," Nophand says. "But I had trouble getting there because the story relies on political satire, and there is so much of that issue in this country that it was difficult to put it all in. I couldn't find a way to reflect all the political turmoil of this country, but I wanted to reflect on the soul of humanity and that sometimes we're not at all as good as we think we are."
