Thunder Bird

Overview

In a wide field, beside the night market where the pagoda festival has taken place, there is a 65-year-old gay, is performing with the old songs on a shaky theatre stage underneath the spotlights. She has covered the wrinkles and smile lines with a thick makeup. Her performance and dance are as active as a youngster. She is the second generation and the leader of Thunder Bird troupe, which is established 50 years ago, Mommy Soe a.k.a Phyu Hnin Mg. It is the first and only entrepreneur artist group capable of making the conservative Myanmar society accepted them around in 1980s, in the socialist time ruled by U Ne Win. There were a lot of audience who accepted, loved and came to watch them. But there were also a few who threw rocks violently and shouted and mocked at them: ‘Homo! Faggot!’. When there was no dancing stage, Mommy Soe worked as an assistant make-up artist in her friend’s beauty salon.