A Sunny Day from the Chronicles of Burma Spring

illustration by Kenneth Wong

 

There's no sun in the sky, 

No air in our lungs;

Without the sun, 

We can't see one another clearly;

I walk the streets of Yangon,

But I know not where they end.

The flowers shook off their petals;

The crows came to snatch away the sleeping babies.

Yangon is a dog limping along.

I love Yangon;

I hate Yangon ...

This is the era where

We sit and watch the specters passing by ... 

These are the opening lines to the poem "Pesticide," performed by the veteran Burmese actress May Wynn-Maung on stage as part of the new musical drama, called A Sunny Day. The spoken-word piece carries as much weight as, if not more than, the other musical numbers scattered throughout the two-hour-plus drama. In the pivotal role as the poet Nagani (Red Dragon), May Wynn-Maung delivers the poem in a perfect blend of nostalgia and fury, bringing to life a city trapped in a surreal cycle of tragedy, violence, and resilience. 

A Sunny Day tells the stories of lives shattered by the recent military coup in Burma, also known as Myanmar. The play begins on the day before the coup, with the characters full of hope and the country about to emerge from the shadows of COVID-19. For many of the Burmese in the audience, the dramatic irony is almost unbearable. They know full well the young man talking about his overseas study, the playwright gearing up for a show in the U.S., and the mother and daughter planning to meet soon, will be on the run a few scenes later. The play's name itself is ironic, as it deals with a bleak subject matter. It's an unflinching look at the atrocities of military rule, along with portraits of courage under fire.

The most violent and tragic events in the story, such as the death of the beloved characters, take place offstage. Instead of onstage bloodshed, a dance number with a haunting chorus depicts the horrors of the coup. These are, artistically and technically, wise choices. The audience's imagination is more powerful than whatever might have been practical to produce on stage; and for some in the audience who have lost loved ones in the revolution, a vivid depiction of the events might be traumatizing. 

The play features a number of familiar songs, but recast as commentaries on the resistance movement, they take on new life. "Be Strong, Mi Nge" (ခွန်အားဖြည့်မိငယ်) by Khin Maung Toe is originally a song of encouragement. But sung by the characters who have just witnessed the arrest of the NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the following lines take on new meaning (performed by Mya Mya Aye, Pearl Htoo Saw, Fanny Rockman).

You'll see a new day dawning,
Beyond the night that follows sunset;
Hold on to your conviction,
One day you'll see victory and liberty.

နေ၀င်ညကို ကူးဖြတ်ပြီးမှ ‌
ရောင်နီလာတဲ့နေ့သစ်ကိုရောက်မယ်
ယုံကြည်ခြင်းနဲ့ ကြိုးစားထားမှ
တစ်ချိန်မှာအောင်မြင်လွတ်မြောက်မယ်မဟုတ်လား

 

Similarly, the song "Farewell" (နှုတ်ဆက်ခဲ့ပါတယ်) by Khin Wan is all the more poignant as the parting words of an anti-coup demonstrator's spirit (played by Thun Than Zin). 

Farewell!
I'm leaving now.
I've forsaken my tears.
Everything will be alright.
If fate will bring us together again, I'll see you.
For now, I wish you happiness.

နှုတ်ဆက်ခဲ့ပါတယ်
ကျွန်တော်သွားတော့မယ် ...
ငိုကြွေးခြင်းကို စွန့်လွှတ်ခဲ့ပြီ
အားလုံးအဆင်ပြေသွားမှာပါ
ကံဆုံရင် ပြန်ဆုံကြဦးမယ်
ပျှော်ရွှင်ပါစေလို့ဆုတောင်းပါတယ် ...

    

In the ensemble piece that pays tribute to the real dissidents and activists killed since the coup, the audience is invited to call out the names of the fallen. The play also includes a classic Burmese lament, sung with traditional orchestra (performed by ZaYanDa). The final group dance is kicked off with "Red Dragon" (နဂါးနီ), a joyous number that predicts a brighter future for Burma (led by ZaYanDa).

A Sunny Day is part of a larger movement -- the artists' counterstrike against the coup. The repertoire includes works like Ko Pauk's The Road Not Taken (မသောက်မိသောမိုးခါးရေ), Dawna resistance group's The Return of Phoe Maung (ဖိုးမောင်ပြန်လာပြီ),  Jeanne Hallacy's documentary Padauk: Myanmar Spring, and more. While they are all inspired by a noble cause, some, unfortunately, suffer from the creators' limited experience, craftsmanship, and access to technology, resulting in subpar visuals and storytelling. A Sunny Day, however, stands apart as a superb piece of musical theater. It's bound to move even those who are clueless about, or indifferent to, Burma's crisis. But for those with a deeper connection to Burma, the work is a reminder of the heavy price the ordinary people have paid in the country's long struggle for democracy. 

May Wynn-Maung appears in the hospital TV drama New Amsterdam, Season 4, Episode 5, "This Be the Verse." She plays Hayma, an exiled Burmese harpist who recognizes her old musical instrument in a hospital display table. 

A Sunny Day is the brainchild of Ko Thet Win, May Wynn-Maung's husband. The play is the product of the labor of a sixty-member team, featuring 14 performers. It spans 28 songs, 14 dances, and 44 scenes in 4 acts. It was first staged in Los Angeles, and later in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Bay Area performance took place at the Chabot College Performance Center in Hayward, California, on January 29, 2023. The winter weather of the day -- chilly and foggy -- adds one more note of irony to A Sunny Day.