Artist Turns Junk into a Fizzingly Original Phuket Show
As a traveller approaching his biblical three score and ten, I must be one of the rare people who still buys physical guidebooks rather than rely on travel advice provided through Mr Google. And I’m glad I am. Stuck at Bangkok airport awaiting a delayed flight last week, I leafed through my Lonely Planet guide to Thailand and read of the amazing Junkyard Theatre in Phuket.
Always a theatre junkie — my last trip to London took in eight shows in six days — I resolved that my three nights in Phuket must include one at the Junkyard. Connecting via-email through the free airport Wi-Fi, I learned that my only chance of seeing the show was that very same night, as the cabaret-style happening with food and drink is mounted only twice a week. I decided to grab a Grab car and go straight there from Phuket airport if the delayed flight arrived in time.
The theatre is situated next to an Ikea store, on a busy unattractive road between the airport and Old Phuket, in a hangar erected above the Underwood Art Factory of Australian artist, designer and theatre director John Underwood and his son Zac.
Long-term expat John, a genial white-haired giant of 73, launched the Junkyard theatre project during Covid to assist and motivate young Thai performers through the pandemic. The result is an exciting and very professional two-and-a-half-hour show that affectionately guys Thai stereotypes and situations faced by tourists in the country with a mix of music, dance, sketches, amazing breakdance and stand-up comedy (in English).
A comedy skit about budget airlines flying to Phuket.
One scene makes fun of ‘Junk Air’, the kind of low-cost airline with which many tourists arriving in Phuket may be familiar. A hapless passenger played by one of the revolving cast of foreigners is seen strapped into his seat at the mercy of two stewardesses in orange uniforms.
Another scene presents a Suzy Wong nightclub with sexily clad hostesses accosting a middle-aged male tourist. A third alludes to the ancient Chinese art of shadow theatre, with the silhouettes of what is happening in a bedroom thrown by back-projection onto a screen. Some of the material is slightly risqué, but never offensively so.
On top of all that, some of the athletic young Thai men in the troupe perform some breathtaking breakdance. And as we are in Thailand, there are appearances by ladyboys. (Or are they?)
The impressive set of the Suzy Wong nightclub scene.
The show I saw was hosted with elements of stand-up comedy by a Swiss-Thai dual national. Sometimes that role is performed by a Russian woman who can communicate directly with some of the foreign audience, as well as in English.
The imaginative and often complicated sets are built from recycled materials by John and his son Zac in the Underwood Art Factory below the auditorium. The theatre is accessed from a large bar and reception area decorated with an eclectic mix of objects and art works, including a large 3-D sculpture with a track for a giant ball bearing and a life-size gold elephant designed by John that can walk through the streets. Excellent Thai food is served during pauses in the show to large round tables surrounding the stage.
Head of admin, and mother hen to the nearly 20 performers, who include a revolving handful of other expats, is John’s wife Judy. She met her husband at art college more than half a century ago and does not regret leaving Australia.
John and Judy Underwood of the Junkyard Theatre.
The Junkyard show fizzes with energy, creativity, and humour, the sound and lighting are brilliant, and the cast clearly enjoy themselves almost as much as the audience. As Lonely Planet says: “this amusing parody of Thai culture should not be missed”.
The show is a very different from – and to this writer far more satisfying than – the long-running Simon Cabaret, a slick but essentially fixed and humour-less confection of glitter, feathers, dance and lip-synching that attracts high-paying tourist audiences three times nightly to a conventional theatre close to Patong Beach.
And of course, both shows are not on the scale of the Phuket FantaSea or Carnival Magic mega-productions at Kamala Beach.
An appreciative audience at the Junkyard Theatre.
John has no ambition to replicate the commercial success of the bigger shows but would welcome fuller houses to the Junkyard Theatre every Wednesday and Saturday. Bookings can be made through their website at https//www.junkyardtheatre.com
He is currently working on a new show with Bill Bensley, an award-winning Thailand-based American artist, luxury hotel designer and philanthropist (bensleyoutsidergallery.com), on themes of the Silk Road. Performances in aid of Bensley’s Cambodian charities are planned at the Junkyard Theatre and in Bangkok, including in the Jim Thompson House, in April 2025.
Images: © Junkyard Theatre & David Lewis