Back whenthe thirteen lives of the Wild Boars soccer team got stuck in the Tham Luang cave, it was as if they were condemned to a death sentence. The whole world stared at the screens as they prayed for the boys’ safety. Years later, there is still a consistent flow of media being produced that shines light on the experiences of those involved in the event. I got the opportunity from Dr. Teerakiat to write a script that would encapsulate his ideas and questions into the form of a stage play.
A few months ago, as I returned to Newton Sixth Form after spending a year in France, I knew nobody in the school and expected nobody to recognize me, though, P’ Tony, one of the executives, did. I was walking in front of the ninth floor campus with Kimnite, rushing to the third floor to get lunch when P’ Tony approached us and invited us to chat with Dr. T.
The conversation started vaguely about the new school year and how we were doing in our classes. P’ Tony then mentioned that I was an aspiring writer, and suddenly Dr. Teerakiat’s eyes sparkled as he talked about his love for Ron Howard’s Thirteen Lives. The hope that kept the boys going on in the cave reflected his undying passion for the subject, and I could not resist getting pulled into that bubble.
“I have something for you to write,” said Dr. T, and that was when my life changed.
“This is something the world should get to see,” he continued, “The world deserves to know how brave those boys were.” I beamed with delight, and as I went to lunch with Kimnite.She can confirm that my brain was churning ideas,and I was more than eager to smash my fingers on a keyboard and churn out a draft.
A few days later, I got a text from a supervisor, asking me to meet Dr. T once again. I suspected it to be about this stage play project, but thoughts pierced through my mind like an archer repeatedly casting needle-sharp arrows. I rushed out of class and climbed the escalator up to the 11th floor, to be greeted with a room full of executives, all in cushioned office chairs as they pivoted in my direction.
I creeped up to the chair next to P’Joob, the school’s Creative Drama supervisor, as Dr. T gestured for me to take a seat. On the screen across from the table, a slideshow displayed photos of Dr. T as he interviewed the Wild Boars soccer team. I stared at them in awe, struggling to believe that this humble group of thirteen boys could have survived such a traumatic event. Dr. T admired the boys for being able to go through the period without any signs of serious conflict or dispute within the group, and he described the experience in the cave as a “meditative state.” He wanted to emphasize the tranquility and calm present in the cave as the boys hibernated on the rocks and waited for help. From my perspective, it was very challenging to work with these limitations. However, at least it provided a stepping stone from a very ambiguous concept.
The meeting passed swiftly.
“I can sense that you’re excited,” Dr. T said. And if I had a mirror at that moment, I would see the reflection of that excited sparkle.
That night, I opened up my computer and created a blank document. The cursor seemed to blur as hours passed by and the sun started to rise. There were so many ideas in my head that the final product felt so far away. In my mind, there was an image of a bright light at the cave opening and turquoise waves blocking the entrance. Under the ripples, there would be a distant light approaching the surface like a large pearl.
I spent three days tossing and turning around, squiggling my pen over my fingerprint-stained iPad screen as I drew out the images that formed in my head. They were hazy, and each time I saw them in the back of my mind, they faded away as if I had just woken up from a dream. The struggle plagued my train of thought, so I turned to something that has never failed to help me spark some inspiration: music.
I pressed the round green button and a random song bursted in the bouncing drivers of my headphones. The legendary piano intro of Seven Seas of Rhye from Queen’s second self-titled album sent chills down my spine, and I felt as if I were experiencing a psychic vision.
The image of a young boy standing up amongst a group of knee-hugging and hopeless boys appeared in my mind. The piano intro would blend in with the young boy’s soprano voice as he told the story about an imaginary world he had created with his sister. This was all inspired by the meaning of the song Seven Seas of Rhye which was written about a childhood fantasy world Freddie Mercury, the band’s lead singer, created with his sister.
This one moment would become the fulcrum for the whole script as the themes and scenes would all build upon the concept of the young boy’s imaginary world with the metaphor of a “hope tree” being the source of light and happiness for the rest of the Wild Boars soccer team.
Another_Queen_song that inspired an important moment in the story was Nevermore. Here, one of the oldest members of the Wild Boars team, struggles with family problems as he delivers a poignant monologue to his father, whom he cannot see through the darkness of the cave while his mother simultaneously pleads back.
My fingers furiously tapped on the keys as I blasted Queen II in my headphones. At first, what I failed to realize was that for each boy, there was a whole other world waiting for him to return to outside the cave. But as I kept typing, the thirteen (once faceless) boys started to separate and have lives of their own and developed this magical and eerie autonomy that ordered my hands to write out whatever they said.
Two days of no sleep passed by, and I held in my hands a copy of my first draft. It was far from perfect, but the blur of the text as I flipped through the pages excitedly indulged my mind with ecstasy and surrealism.
It has been a few months since the final draft has been sent to P’Joob, and I trust his creative drama team and Open School students to present their best rendition of the script that has been so special to me. I have seen the team working hard on the art & set design for the Siam Pic-Ganesha theater, and it is a surreal feeling to see my own work–like I once imagined as a hazy impressionist painting–built out in a real life, physical set.
Before I got the opportunity to work on this script, my school life at Newton had been a foggy and rough road, where I still didn’t have a route drawn out on the map. This is something that has brought me hope in the upcoming school year and my future at the Newton Sixth Form school like the first shade of sunlight at a cave entrance.