THEATRICALS IN SIAM.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 93, 6 April 1876, Page 4

THEATRICALS IN SIAM.

(Leisure Hour.) After dinner we had a theatrical entertainment, or " lacon," as it is called in Siara. Tho scene which presented itself as we passed out of (he house was novel and effective A large court at the back was used for the display, acd here at one end a small stage was erected, with some painted canvas behind, representing the front of a house, through ihe doors of which tbe performers appeared and disappeared. On the stage, a woman, gorgeously dressed in a tifeht-fitting costume, glistening with gold and silver beads and scales, and a huge conical headdress, likewise gilt, was squatting. In front of the stage were two rows of male and female performers, dressed in a similar style, equatting on the ground. Behind these again was the band, and on the left of the perfoi m?rs were a number of women and girls, armed with sticks, which they bring together with a clash, keeping time to the music from beginning to end of tbe performance. Imagine ihe result of this clanging, kept up for five or six hours without ceasing. On the right-band side a clear spaoe with chairs :was reserved for the governor and parly, and the background was a liviDg mass of faces; the whole lit up with a lurid red glare by torches set on stands, in rows, on each side of the stage and performers; I cannot give you a very vivid account of the performance for the simple reason that there was nothing to describe. A more dismally monotonous affair I never witnessed; ail talking acd going through extraordinary contortions with hands, aims, fingers, and nails, turning them up and down and round and inside out. The principal female actors have nails to the fingers of one hand three or four inches long — a disgusting sight, but, I believe, a sign of high breeding, showing that work is beneath their dignity. The Siamese audience sat it out very stolidly, with impassive faces and open mouths, doubtless enjoying themselves immensely in a quiet way. The most amusing part of the affair (to us) was the governor's young boy, a little dot hardly three years old, who smoked the whole time, though hardly high enough to reach the cigarettes off the table. Tbe only drawback to this amusing phase of childish precocity was the ingenious way in which he burnt holes in unsuspected parts of our wedding garments with the lighted end of the cigar. Another source of parental pride must have been tbe playful way, in which he would plunge his fist iato the pit of our stomachs, the joke of which we could not quite enter into, though of ciur.e one had to smile pleasantly. Altogether he was rather a nuisance. But the crowciog piece of all was to see. . this youngster rushing wildly nbout in a state of nature the whole of the evening.; One could not help envying bim in a certain sense, for we found it excessively hot. After sitting patiently for three hours, we became rather anxious whether there was going to be an end, for we had heard of Siamese dramas continuing for over a century — a terrible prospect. I thiuk the governor must have noticed

our flagging spirits, for many were nodding in tbeir chairs, and he brought the performance to a close. The prompter, contrary to our custom, sat well in the centre, and oalled out the parts in a loud and clear tone, heard everywhere. But then it would be rather too great an effort of memory to commit to it a play lasting a century or so.