The forty-ninth anniversary of the 6th October 1976 massacre was commemorated at Thammasat University today. Two short plays were staged at the Sri Burapha Auditorium, and the Museum of Popular History held an exhibition, ความหวังยังพริ้งพราย เก่าตายมีใหม่เสริม (‘hope still shines brightly: the old dies, and is replaced by the new’), which compared student activism in the 1970s to the student protest movement that began in 2020. The exhibition itself didn’t include the notorious Dao Siam (ดาวสยาม) newspaper front page that sparked the massacre, though a small reproduction of it was part of a display outside the entrance.
In 6 ตุลา x ราโชมอน (‘6 Oct. x Rashomon’), by Natthapat Mardech, a young man returns to Thammasat to learn the truth about the massacre, though everyone he speaks to gives a different account of what happened, in the same way that Rashomon (羅生門) also recounts a violent event from multiple perspectives. The play’s props include a folding chair and a reproduction of the Dao Siam front page, both of which are closely associated with the massacre.
It will be performed again on 15th and 16th November, at TK Park in Bangkok’s CentralWorld mall, as part of the Bangkok Theatre Festival 2025 (เทศกาลละครกรุงเทพ 2025). The festival runs from 8th to 23rd November.
It will be performed again on 15th and 16th November, at TK Park in Bangkok’s CentralWorld mall, as part of the Bangkok Theatre Festival 2025 (เทศกาลละครกรุงเทพ 2025). The festival runs from 8th to 23rd November.
The title of the other play, Ultramarine: Threat (by ShiVa Vitthaya), hints at a symbolic meaning of the colour blue, and the production featured forty-five extras playing the massacre victims. It also included a projected backdrop of images from the 1976 massacre. (Its next performance will be in Chiang Mai.) Both productions were photographed by the artist known as Khai Maew.
The first event marking the forty-ninth anniversary took place last month. ห้วงแห่งความเงียบงัน: ภาวะลืมไม่ได้จำไม่ลง หลัง 6 ตุลา 2519, a Thai translation of Thongchai Winichakul’s book Moments of Silence, featuring illustrations by Tawan Wattuya, has been published to coincide with the aniversary. A similar commemoration was held on the forty-eighth anniversary last year.
