According to Thai Buddhist folklore, twins have been lovers in their previous lives. If they don't get married as children, it will bring misfortune in this life, but Phitthaya and his twin brother were never blessed with the traditional wedding ceremony. Phitthaya's twin brother has faced many obstacles in life. Phitthaya asks whether this is a consequence of karma from a previous life, or is it injustice?

Inside the ballroom scene, the scene setter explores and plays with different categories of stereotyping and gender identity. With this dance form as a starting point, Phitthaya restores the connections to his possible previous life and challenges our ideas about identity and gender.

Realness: Mae Baan is a gripping and relevant show that challenges ideas about gender, identity and tradition. The performance is a love story, about how love is something you take with you from your previous life, exists in the present and is reborn in the next life. Are we just the sum of our experiences in this life, or are we the bearers of souls who have lived countless lives before us? We get an insight into how traditions can lead to both suffering and hope.

After the performance on November 1st, there will be an artist talk with Phittaya Phaefuang, moderated by Sunniva Hovde.

Sunniva Skjøstad Hovde is an Associate Professor of Music at NTNU, where she focuses on teaching and research that integrates arts pedagogy, theory of science, and music, with a particular emphasis on diversity, performativity, and decolonizing perspectives for children and youth in schools. As a musician and performer, she explores improvisation-based and traditional expressions rooted in folk and jazz, and is actively engaged in arts-based research and posthumanist analyses within both global and local music practices.