1 The ‘whisper’ was much reported in the local and foreign press. See Nation, 13 March 2006, NN, and Duncan McCargo's ‘Toxic Thaksin’, Foreign Affairs, 27 September 2006, www.nationmultimedia.com, www.foreignaffairs (accessed February 8, 2007).

2 James Brandon writes, ‘In general, the core of the Ramayana story proved pretty much indigestible as dramatic material throughout Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos and from this epic no well-developed dramatic form emerged on the mainland (though many theatre forms did emerge).’ Southeast Asian Theatre (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967), p. 92; added/original emphases. Certainly social values are apparent in the plays, but Brandon's point is that they are not overtly discussed, nor did they challenge the status quo such as occurred even in pre-Ibsen Western theatre.

3 Mattani Mojdara Rutnin, Dance, Drama, and Theatre in Thailand (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1996), p. 53. Taksin, who preceded Rama I, also made significant contributions to chapters of the Ramakien.

4 Kusuma Prasertsud, ‘Theatre as a Tool for Propaganda: A Case Study of Luang Vichitr Vadakarn's Plays (1936–1940) and Their Impact on Modern Thai Society’, presented at Southeast Asian Studies Postgraduate Research Seminar, May 12, 1993, pp. 4–5.

5 Princess Ubolratna got involved in the River of Kings productions after seeing a light-and-sound show called Their Majesties Live in Thai People's Hearts All Over the World, and the first River of Kings performance, both held in 2000. Since then, she has been a prime mover of the shows, even having her own daughter performing in one. She also sponsors over a thousand disabled and underprivileged people to attend the performances.

6 The first River of Kings was The Chao Phraya, featuring the river's role in the development of the city. The next, City of Angels, focused on the city, and the third was The Great Conquerors, which told ‘about the grandeur of the Siamese kings, who were not only great warriors but creators and intellects, including the present king, whom Thai people admire and have baptized “Father of the Land”’. In 2004 the production celebrated the queen's sixth birthday cycle in Always Beside You, Your Majesty, featuring a reverse incarnation of modern woman, Dr Minta, who travels back in time to rescue a crown prince from an army of devils led by a ‘White Priest’. See Thailand Illustrated Magazine, pp. 1–3, available at http://thailand.prd.go.th/ebook/story.php?idmag=23&idstory=183 (accessed March 20, 2006)

7 Hun luang rose to prominence during the reign of Rama I (1782–1809) and originally used strings, but the River of Kings puppets used metal rods connected to braces on the puppeteer's body. See Natthapatra Chandavij and Promporn Promualratana, Thai Puppets and Khon Masks (Bangkok: River Books, 1998), p. 11.

8 Niels Mulder, Inside Thai Society (Bangkok: Editions Duang Kamol, 1992), p. 29.

9 The spelling of Thai names provokes controversy among scholars. Luang Wichit Wathakan and Luang Vichit Vadhakan are alternative spellings. Moreover, although it is Thai custom to refer to people by their first names, I have followed Western academic norms in using their last names.

10 Suthon Sukphisit, ‘A Life of Theatre’, Bangkok Post, 14 August 1998, p. 1.

11 In his 1939 play The Kingdom of Nanchao, ‘Luang Vichitr claimed that the Chinese like to infiltrate other countries without bothering to initiate anything. They were given advantages and could easily find jobs – and because they were industrious people, they could build up their living without any difficulties. This, he contrasted with the Thai, whose peacefulness disadvantaged them against the Chinese. He claimed that whenever the Thais build the town, the Chinese followed and became dominant. As a result the Thai had to keep migrating for centuries.’ See Prasertsud, ‘Theatre as a Tool for Propaganda’, p. 7. In a 1938 public address, Luang Vichitr also compared the Chinese with the Jews in Hitler's Germany, pointing to the remittances the Chinese sent to China, draining the Thai economy, exploiting the Thai common people as usurious middlemen, and forming anti-Japanese and communist insurgent groups. See David Wyatt, Thailand (Chiang Mai: Silkworm, 2002), p. 243.

12 Luang Vichitr's patriotic songs were played independently on the radio and some were so popular they were second only to the national and royal anthems. Some members of the audience sang along. His songs were also sung at the demonstrations against Thaksin.

13 Wyatt, Thailand, p. 123.

14 Rutnin, Dance, Drama, and Theatre, p. 47. Taksin also revised parts of the Ramakien, though his contribution has been overshadowed by Rama I's more thorough, and now canonical, version. See Chetana Nagavajara, ‘Literary Historiography and Socio-cultural Transformation: The Case of Thailand’, Comparative Literature from a Thai Perspective (Bangkok: Chulalongkorn Unioversity Press, 1996), pp. 41–60, here p. 45.

15 ‘Dukdamban’ literally means ‘ancient’. Rutnin writes that Somphop Chantharaphrapha ‘grew up in the Ban Mo palace of Chao Phyaya Thewet and had close relationships with dancers, singers, and musicians of the Lakhon Dukdamban Theatre, a fusion of Thai and Western architectural styles. The descendants of Chao Phyaya Thewet (who went to Europe in the 1899 and adopted Italian operetta to create dukdamban) and of Prince Naris who developed it, have never recognized Somphop's plays as such’. See Rutnin, Dance, Drama, and Theatre, p. 195.

16 Nagavajara, ‘Literary Historiography and Socio-Cultural Transformation’, p. 44. Nagavajara quotes the source of the myth, saying that one of the few pieces of extrinsic evidence about early Thai literature is a biographical account of Si Prat in a Mon chronicle known as ‘Evidence Given by a Citizen of the Old Capital of Ayutthaya’. The citizen is supposedly the ex-King Uthumporn who was taken hostage by the Burmese. Despite the dubious nature of this early narrative, twentieth-century writers have further formalized the myth of Si Prat, perpetuating it in Thailand up to the present. See ibid., p. 43. Recently, scholars have become more sceptical of his authorship, saying that the language used in his nirat poem postdates his death.

17 The troupe disbanded and Gunatilaka fled to France after the 1976 demonstrations. The New Crescent Moon started up again when he returned in 1987.

18 Falcon of Siam (London: Methuen, 1988) and The Falcon Takes Wing (London: Methuen, 1991) by Axel Aylwen are among the most recent novels.

19 Walter Strach, ‘Constance Phaulkon: Myth or Reality’, Explorations in Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 4 (Manoa: University of Hawai'i Press, 2000), pp. 23–45, here p. 23.

20 Personal interview, 1 February 2002.