Nay Nai in modern times

THAI dancer Pichet Klunchun returns to Singapore to debut a new work - again inspired by Thai history and performed as classical Khon dance, but within a contemporary framework.

His last work was in 2011, titled Black and White, which referenced the 2006 coup against former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra that divided Thai citizens into the red and yellow-shirted camps. The fall-out from that coup is still reverberating eight years on, culminating in the present crisis. But Klunchun himself has moved on.

This time, he focuses on a select group of men in the royal Thai court during King Rama VI's (Prince Vajiravudh) reign, circa 1910 to 1925. These young onemen, Nay Nai, were like gentlemen-in-waiting in the king's entourage, for whom the king wrote plays and played games with. This male circle formed the nucleus of his social life.