Giannine Tan’s play, Comfort, showing at the Voila! Festival, captures one of the stories of the Second World War kept under wraps for many years, that of “comfort women” provided for the sexual relief of Japanese troops.
The story takes place in the Philippines in both the present day, as the old Lola Hilum reveals what happened, and in the post-Pearl Harbor 1940s, in the experience of Lola Maria.
Survivors of these war crimes, often between the ages of 10 and 20 at the time, are known as Malaya Lolas (‘Free Grandmothers’). Their testimony is still officially denied and politically sensitive.
Giannine Tan herself takes the dual leading roles, supported by Janna May and Mary Suarez. Direction and lighting are by Elisabeth Tu, with set design by Izzy Cresswell.
Using music, storytelling, and vivid reconstruction, Tan reveals the vicious side of conflict and occupation, of rape as control, and of the fear and trauma retained by those exploited as children.
With just a backcloth, two guitars, and a few shirts on hangars, Comfort allows us to see behind a curtain lowered by government and hidden by guilt. Contrasting this with a carefree scene of a farm with puppet chickens, the horror of child abuse in the name of war is made clear.
The hardest scenes to watch involve Lola Maria’s experience of a sliver of kindness from a soldier (“we just talked … he was kind”), and a sequence where the suggestion of gang rape is presented by the draping over her body of empty sleeves.
Music is largely traditional, although a rare, postwar, romantic interlude is bookended by smatches of Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud”. It is about grief, resilience, survival.
The story of Comfort is that of a thousand girls who were pushed aside in the guilt and shame of a nation. Forced prostitution of girls whose families had been killed in the name of conquest.
It offers a production of quiet power and emotional understanding. In starting light, yet respectfully, it allows an audience to prepare for darker moments, and delivers a gut punch by the end.
Comfort is performed in Bisaya, English and Tagalog. It has one more performance at Barons Court Theatre on 9 Nov at 1.30pm – tickets here.
Four stars.
Image credit: Comfort play Instagram