Much About Doing Nothing: Documenting Ugly Idleness

What comes to mind when the word 'nothing' is mentioned? Perhaps a blank white canvas, the black reflective surface of a screen, or perhaps a silent, empty room. There are many associations to be had with the concept of nothingness, but the act of theatre is not one that I would think of right off the bat. After all, the definition of the word 'act' is to do something, which is a direct opposite of 'doing nothing'. With this, I was curious on how to begin approaching the work of a theatre collective that brands itself as the ZOBO Company, roughly translated as the 'Do Nothing Company'.

In the few months that ZOBO Company was a resident under Centre 42’s Creation Residency, I sat in to observe a few of their rehearsals. As the collective explored and developed their work for a work-in-progress presentation, I found my thoughts constantly revisiting the concept of nothingness, trying to relate it to the laboured and strained movements of the performers.

The collective ZOBO Company set out to explore two broad concepts, ‘idleness’ and ‘ugly feelings’ for their Work-in-Progress showcase, titled Potty 趴地. The collective came together in 2021 for the first phase of the joint project, before applying to Centre 42’s Creation Residency in June 2022. Vanessa Poh, one of the members of ZOBO Company, mentions that there was a meeting early on in their ideation phase when individual members in the collective shared what they would each like to explore. The two themes of idleness and ugly feelings emerged through this discussion and that formed the basis of their creative work that they would embark on.

Out of this discussion, two members of the collective, Teoh Jie Yu and Ella Wee, led the writing of the texts for performance and settled the direction of their respective themes. Jieyu took charge of the concept of ‘idleness’ and Ella took charge of the concept of ‘ugly feelings’. From there, the rest of the collective proceeded to the devising process where they explored these themes.

During the early phase of the residency with Centre 42, the group decided to name themselves the ZOBO Company. Two things immediately stood out: firstly, that the Hokkien phrase 'zobo', written in Chinese as '做毋', meaning ‘to do nothing’, seemed appropriate given the themes that the group was exploring. But more interestingly, the group chose to call themselves  a "Company" rather than a "collective". The choice is certainly intentional, evoking the contradiction between the productivity of a company and the unproductive nature of idleness.

I sat in for one of ZOBO Company’s rehearsals on a Saturday at Dance Nucleus’ studio at Goodman Arts Centre. Lim Chin Huat, another member of ZOBO Company, was leading a movement-based exercise with chairs. Each person had a white chair next to them. The prompt: each person was to find their own journey with their chair in the space. Chin Huat proceeded to play music out of a set of loudspeakers, and the exercise commenced.

Everyone started to move slowly. Some dragged their chairs across the floor. Some clung onto their chairs. Others embraced and molded themselves around their chairs. Their individual movements were different, but together they took on a slow, laborious texture. Adjectives such as ‘squirming’, ‘crushing’, ‘wrenching’ all came to mind.

As the pace of the music picked up, Chin Huat started to bring in more chairs into the space. What was a slow and contemplative scene started to take on a frantic energy. Each person responded to the new prompt in different ways, some took on more chairs, others switched from the chair they originally were holding to another, and some others refused to let go of their own chair. After a whirlwind of activity, the exercise came to an end. A surreal landscape of chairs was left in its wake.

After the session, I sat down with ZOBO Company and asked: with all this activity, where’s the 'doing nothing'?

It turns out, there were rehearsal sessions earlier on in the devising process where they would do nothing for an entire session. For the session that I was observing, they were already working towards the work-in-progress showcase, and hence they had to explore themes and modes of expression outside of mere idleness.

One of the main curiosities of ZOBO Company is the idea of ‘unconventional movement’, the exploration of which was a key reason why the collective was formed in the first place. Ci Xuan started the group by inviting people whom she knew from ARTivate, the youth wing of Drama Box. Chin Huat was then invited to train the collective when they were new.

While it seems like Chin Huat mentors and trains ZOBO Company, in reality, his role in and relationship with ZOBO Company is far less clear cut. He frequently rejects being called a "director" or the "leader of the collective", and instead describes his role as a "trigger", as someone who "starts the engine" and leaves the rest of the collective to "fill in the blanks". With his prompts, his role is less than what a mentor does, but more than what a dramaturg would do. When asked what role he would credit himself as, he simply replies “zabbalang” (“杂叭浪”, roughly translated as 'a mixture of random things').

Taken together, ZOBO Company’s process exhibits a sense of 'in-betweeness': where they toggle between doing nothing and doing something, between mentoring and dramaturging. This sense is reflected again in the themes that the collective is exploring, of idleness and ugly feelings. This sense of 'in-betweeness' manifests multiple times through their slow and laborious movements, as if they were suspended solids swirling around in thick liquid: idle but continuously forced to move.

ZOBO Company presented their Work-in-Progress showcase on 22 October 2022, titled Potty 趴地, translated as 'Potty — Sprawling on the Floor'. In the showcase, the performers enter the space to select a chair of their choice, and then they proceed to… do nothing.

But not quite. If there is one thing I realised through my conversations with ZOBO Company, is that doing nothing results in anything but stillness, peace and quiet. After the initial silence of doing nothing, boredom starts to seep in. In the showcase, each individual performer starts to distract themselves in various ways. One of them listens to music, another caresses a blanket, and yet another slinks further and further in her seat. Interaction between all of them is minimal, they lament and muse to no one in particular, and if they do interact, they seem to talk over rather than to each other.

The mood gradually grows desperate. The shaking of legs to pass the time gradually intensifies into rhythmic dancing. Caresses turn into abuse. Chuckles evolve into manic laughter. Rhythmic club music with thumping bass envelopes the room, but it does little to numb the growing sense of despair. As the music dies down, everyone withdraws away from each other again, worn and frazzled out, quietly waiting for the lights to fade.

As we watched the ennui and ugly feelings manifest on stage, ZOBO Company’s showcase reminded me of the three long years of collective isolation that we all endured. But at least now we are finally able to share in this expression of anguish in the same space.

Published: 27 March 2023