Swimming to Cambodia:

By Susan Tileston

For The Spectator

NovaNewsNow.com ‘Sanuk’ is the Thai word for fun and while there are lots of LOL moments in Spalding Gray’s classic monologue, Swimming to Cambodia, there is also an undercurrent of angst and cynicism. The piece is ostensibly about Gray’s role in the 1987 film, ‘The Killing Fields,’ with enough background on Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge to give context, but it’s also about the author’s hilarious experiences with a ‘Thai stick’ (large marijuana joint) , his inability to leave his New York apartment until he hears a positive word uttered on the radio, a sex show involving a ripe banana, his phobia about being ‘chomped’ by a large shark, encounters on an Amtrak lounge car, and his search for the ‘perfect moment,’ whatever that is.

Let me confess that I knew Spalding Gray slightly in New York City.

Among other things, we went to the same dentist. My husband and I had seen him perform, so I was curious to see how someone other than the author would interpret Gray’s work.

PACKED HOUSE

Last night (July 14), to a packed house at King’s Theatre in Annapolis Royal, Shawn Watson gave a high octane performance of this one-man play. In 2008 Watson, who grew up in Bridgetown and performed with the King’s Theatre Young Company, won the Winner Critics Choice Spotlight Award for Best Fringe Production (Victoria) for this piece.

Watson (Gray) describes how he got the role of the American ambassador’s aide in the film: the director, Roland Jaffe, was ranting on about Cambodian history when Gray says he really isn’t political, in fact, he’s never voted. ‘You’re perfect,’ says Jaffe.

Gray’s experiences during the making of the film are just the hook on which to hang observations about love, war, and, among other things, inconsiderate neighbors. Watson’s delivery is so passionate and so breathless, that at times I found myself gulping for air. The riffs on the Cambodian people, who ‘seemed to have lost touch with evil,’ the American secret bombing of Cambodia, the Kent State shootings, and Nixon’s paranoia are delivered with such energy and irony that I thought the actor might actually fly out of his chair and off of the stage.

SPARSE STAGE

And the stage was bare except for a table, chair, mike, and glass of water. Lighting cues were minimal and the sound track was discreet. What comedian and political activist Mark Russell called ‘Poor theatre - a man and an audience and a story.’ And while Spalding Gray was older than Shawn Watson and his delivery was a lot more laconic, Watson delivered the goods last night. We’ve been listening to stories since we started to talk. I hope Shawn Watson will continue tell our tales.

SUSAN TILESTON is from Annapolis Royal and writes periodic reviews of King’s Theatre performances for The Spectator.

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