Music is the soul of Cambodia, and this soul will never die despite the country’s history of genocide, says Jivesh Parasram, director of Cambodian Rock Band. In arrangement with the award-winning Concord Theatricals, Arts Club Theatre Company brings this genre-bending play exploring family secrets, human resilience and the Cambodian diaspora to the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage (March 6 to Apr. 6) with an all-Asian cast – including B.C.’s Kimberly-Ann Truong.

“I want people to know more about this … genocide, but also this music,” Parasram says. “[This music] that is still very much alive or has come back to life.”

A double-billed play with actors also performing as musicians, Cambodian Rock Band features songs from LA-based band Dengue Fever – combining 1960s–70s Cambodian pop and rock music.

Innovating rock music

A creation of American playwright, Lauren Yee, Cambodian Rock Band portrays a Khmer Rouge survivor’s return to Cambodia – one complicated by his daughter’s prosecution of a war criminal from the genocide. Parasram sees this father-daughter connection as the heart of the story; it is also what first caught his attention when reading the play.

“I picked up on [the father-daughter relationship] being something that was straightforward,” the director adds. “It’s not complex, but it is a narrative that I could see very clearly in the piece…that love between them.”

Having been exposed to South Asian rock music during his university years, Parasram was also attracted to the play’s incorporation of Cambodian rock. For the director, this music is an opportunity to witness a part of Cambodian culture that is not widely known in mainstream Canada.

“Our music director, Mary Ancheta, is really working on respecting the Dengue Fever tracks,” says Parasram. “But [she’s] also looking at the original pieces the Dengue Fever tracks are based on and trying to bring that spirit forward into it too.”

He adds that Cambodian rock albums are notable for its diverse expressions. Unlike western rock music’s rebellious nature, it does not speak against older generations. Rather, it incorporates traditions and even romanticism.

“You will have great rock songs on an album, and then the same artist on the same album will also do something that’s a bit more traditional, a bit more mellow, kind of like a love song,” the director explains.

While the play does incorporate this mellow side through its background music, it is the rock music that takes center stage. For Parasram, Cambodian Rock Band pushes the jukebox musical genre – which has traditionally focused on light-hearted topics – by discussing the genocide.

Embracing forgiveness

For him, the play’s switching between scenes of the band and the narrative allows for a deeper understanding of characters.

“There’s a present moment that the audience is with which is kind of at the concert for the band,” the director explains. “And then we’re also seeing this other narrative happening that informs the concert [and] makes us care more about the concert.”

In fact, one of the director’s favourite scenes occurs near the end of the first act, which depicts the band members in the recording studio, unaware that their togetherness will soon be disrupted by the Khmer Rouge. The character of Duch, the war criminal on trial, also serves as the concert’s MC – allowing for even more layering of characters.

“And he’s very funny, like dark funny, like poor taste,” he adds. “So, there’s this interesting element of the show as well that you’ve got this guy who is the head of this torture facility being your host for the night, dressed in a tuxedo.”

For Parasram, part of the play’s power is resisting a black and white, good versus evil moralization. Instead, the performance explores the human capacity for forgiveness – a theme that was also pointed out by the play’s cultural consultants.

“What this play shows us, or what the play portrays, at least in character…is a type of acceptance and forgiveness that is hard to comprehend for his daughter,” the director adds. “She’s struggling to be able to have any type of objectivity because all she feels is hatred and a desire for revenge.”

While the play does not feature Cambodian actors, the production worked with cultural consultants who shared that many survivors in Cambodian now live next to their former captors – highlighting the theme of foregiveness. The director hopes that Cambodian Rock Band provides opportunity for audiences to connect with what he sees as a “missing piece” in Canada’s diaspora, that of Cambodian culture.

For more information, see www.artsclub.com