REVIEW: THE LONESOME DEATH OF ENG BUNKER at Omnibus Theatre 17 – 21 September 2024

‘the charisma of a magician’ ★★★★

Two twin brothers of Chinese heritage, born in 1811 in the Kingdom of Siam (now known as Thailand) were brought to America in 1829 where they lived and settled down until their death in 1874. After being discovered in their native village by a Scottish merchant Robert Hunter, the twins Chang and Eng were sold into show business and went on a world tour to be exhibited at various freak shows. Being joined at the sternum by a band of cartilage and a bit of liver, the Siamese twins became known as curiosities of nature. They became objects of scientific experiments, under the observing eyes of physicians inspecting, examining and studying them for their abnormalities. They found fame and popularity for their oddity of appearance and their eastern ethnicity in a western world. The Siamese twins became successful, got rid of their manager, turned into entrepreneurs themselves and became owners of plantation fields and African slaves.

‘The Lonesome death of Eng Bunker’ recounts the final hours of the surviving twin brother Eng who woke up on January 17th 1874, to find that Chang was dead. In the theatre space transformed into a butcher shop, an astucious design of the set and costume by designer Erin Guan. Puppet human body parts were hanging from the ceiling, hooked like meat carcasses hanging in a cold storage room, against an imposing circular red and navy blue stage backdrop. Centre stage was a stainless steel catering work table on wheels, from which various smaller puppets were hanging. A stage set akin to a horror freak show or a scientific dissecting performance about to take place.

Enter the writer and performer Tobi Poster-Su as a calm and collected narrator telling us how his own childhood was impressed and fascinated by the unusual story of the Siamese twins. As a disclaimer, he reassured the audience that his play ‘The Lonesome death of Eng Bunker’ is his interpretation of what the last hours of Eng could have been like and that he is still ‘trying to figure something out’. When the music starts and to the delight of a surprised audience who perhaps was expecting a most horrifying, gruesome and depressing story about someone close to death, Poster-Su becomes the embodiment of one twin sibling and as if he himself is being stringed up by an invisible master puppeteer, he skillfully manipulated Aya Nakamura’s beautifully crafted puppets, and performs several sketches of the life of Chang and Eng.

In a cabaret style performance, accompanied by the rhythmic musical composition of Tom Poster, the performer transitions continuously between storytelling and songs and back again. He has the charisma of a magician, or a dare-devil physician at work (and play) on his scientific objects, and while keeping the audience on the edge of their seats, he takes pleasure in pulling out of his magic ‘hat’ or should I say a human torso, a heart, a lung, another lung, intestines dripping with blood and slime, and hangs them carefully on hooks. Poster-Su also demonstrates his versatility, gracing the stage with fun filled comedy snapshots of the twins' everyday life ups and downs, in ballroom and lyrical dance movements under the direction of Iskandar Sharazuddin, and movement director Jasmine Chiu. The finale performance was an extravagant rendition of songs to the tune of All That Jazz by Poster-Su in a dashing 15th century pink costume complete with tights.

The 60 minutes solo performance is provocative and raunchy in an absurd way, weird and quirky, and a bizarre, fun and amusing entertainment. That speaks volume. The mix of puppetry and variety show format is catalyst to the exploration of the serious themes of sibling loss and being isolated, assimilation of eastern beings into western culture, racism and racial oppression, and the dehumanising act of commodifying and commercialising human trade.

Box Office https://www.omnibus-clapham.org/the-lonesome-death-of-eng-bunker-2/

Writer and Performer: Tobi Poster-Su

Directors: Iskandar R. Sharazuddin

Producer: Natalie Chan

Venue: Omnibus Theatre