志异 Draft by Drama box July 2014 (english) | Page 13

competent as s/he did not write a character that was
consistent. It was very patriarchal too. 
What TNS is doing with its New Realism plays, is that
we don’t look at the oppositional position as the only
alternative, we look at alternative positions as multiple. Opposition is but one of the many alternative positions. So in our plays, all different positions are explored,
including the oppositional position, but we don’t harp
on it, because then it becomes counter-propaganda and
didactic. 
A postmodern sensibility for me is when a character can
dern
feel for the poor in the morning and eclipse that concern
mo
post ility for
A
with a first-world worry by the afternoon. That doesn’t
ib
a
sens when n
mean we do not care about the poor because the concern
is
me acter ca
will return at another time, as it is one of our multiple
r
cha for the
selves. We accept the fluidity of character without viewing
feel in the
r
it as contradiction or hypocrisy. But for the modernists,
poo ing and
n
if some beliefs contradict within one self, one is perceived
mor se that
eclip ern with as being not consistent and therefore, hypocritical. 
conc t-world It’s like the National Arts Council (NAC) – it used to
s
a fir y by the be the artists versus NAC. When Forum Theatre got
r
wor noon. into trouble I realised that one cannot just be antir
afte
establishment, because within the establishment there
were supporters and potential allies. The binary broke
when I was consoled and advised by a friend in NAC. It
wasn’t polarised any longer. 
When there are points of contention, we must fight. When
NAC was still policing the arts as censor, I would question NAC’s primary role. But when I talk about NAC

13

feature