The King and I is generally LIES – and banned in Thailand

The King and I, by the legendary theatre-writing composers, Rodgers and Hammerstein is as soon as once more a West End hit, this time starring Call The Midwife‘s Helen George.

The story tells of Anna Leonowens, a widow who travelled to Siam within the early 1860s to show English to King Mongkut of Siam’s wives and youngsters. 

Although it’s set over 150 years in the past the musical, and the later movie, are thought of so controversial in Thailand – as Siam grew to become identified in 1959 – that it has been banned there for over 70 years. 

(An earlier 1946 movie adaptation of the ebook was briefly proven in Siamese cinemas. It was the extra irreverent musical which induced the fury).

The foremost motive for the ban is that, till very just lately, the Thai monarchy was utterly honored. 

Criticism of it was taboo and draconian legal guidelines punished anybody overtly criticising the royal household. 

People would kneel as a royal automobile handed by and when King Bhumibol died in October 2016, after a reign of 70 years and 126 days (88 days lower than Queen Elizabeth’s reign) his individuals wore black mourning for a yr.

The musical with its closely colored account of the connection between king and tutor was sure to trigger issues amongst his topics. 

We see Anna making an attempt to introduce Western beliefs and tradition to the royal court docket, coming towards the rigid King Mongkut. 

The rigidity between the 2 masks their rising ardour. There can be ardour between one of many King’s wives and her lover, a romance which Anna helps to hide.

In actuality King Mongkut was scholarly and deeply spiritual. He had spent the primary half of his life as a Buddhist monk, founding a brand new order of Buddhism in addition to a temple in Bangkok. 

He spoke Western languages and, after turning into king in 1851 at a time when European nations had been searching for higher affect within the east, he skilfully preserved Siam’s independence by working with these dominant nations slightly than towards them.

In her journals Queen Victoria provides us a glimpse of how Mongkut’s diplomacy definitely received her over.

 In November 1857 seven envoys from Siam gave her a present ‘consisting of an Eastern crown of gold & enamel, with diamonds, emeralds & rubies, a gold collar, thickly studded with rubies, a large star, a massive ring set with different precious stones, a golden belt with rubies, a chair of state, or throne, a rare & valuable white shell, all jewelled — an agate cup & saucer, a state palanquin, a state saddle & bridle, a number of umbrellas, covered with gold embroidery, solid gold, boxes & cups, embossed silver salvers, a metal drum, & various other valuable ornaments.’ 

Unsurprisingly she was in a position to inform the envoys: ‘I was much pleased with the presents,’ although she was amused on the deference proven to her. 

‘In taking their leave the envoys crawled the whole way backwards out of the room, — really, it was most difficult to keep one’s countenance.’

Mongkut was identified for his tolerance and open-mindedness and for his dedication to modernise his nation, which earned him the nickname ‘The Father of Science and Technology’ in Siam.

Having been celibate till he grew to become king on the age of 47, he quickly made up for misplaced time, by buying 32 wives and, by the point of his demise, aged 64, a complete of 82 kids.

Wishing the latter to be introduced up within the western custom was the explanation for participating Anne Leonowens, who taught the royal kids and fashioned a powerful relationship with the eldest son, Prince Chulalongkorn. 

Anna was solely at court docket for 5 years, returning to England in 1867, the yr earlier than Mongkut died, having caught malaria whereas attending an enormous gathering to observe the 1868 photo voltaic eclipse at Wakor, a distant spot in Western Thailand.

Two years later Anna wrote her memoirs of her time on the royal court docket.

It was significantly exaggerated and controversially depicted Mongkut as a tyrant. She additionally falsified particulars of her personal background, claiming she was born in Wales. 

In reality, she was blended race – her mom was English, and her father was Indian – at a time when being lower-class, and half Indian would have made her a social pariah. 

She was not even a real governess, since she was solely engaged to show the royal kids English slightly than giving them a rounded schooling.

Anna’s memoirs angered the Siamese court docket. 

Thirty years after leaving her place, Leonowens was reunited with King Chulalongkorn when he got here to London throughout his European tour. 

Although the king graciously thanked her for her educating, he nonetheless criticised her memoirs, asking ‘why did you write such a depraved ebook about my father King Mongkut? You know that you’ve made him completely ridiculous.’

Unrepentant Anna replied that she had written ‘the entire reality’ and that Mongkut had certainly been ‘a ridiculous and a merciless, depraved man’. 

Royal dismay continued effectively into the subsequent century.

 During a go to to the United States in 1960, the monarch of Thailand, King Bhumibol, whereas acknowledging he hadn’t seen the musical, nonetheless claimed that, from what he had been instructed, the portrayal of Mongkut appeared ’90 % exaggerated. My great-grandfather was actually fairly a gentle and good man.’

Curiously, whereas the musical was banned in Thailand, Anna’s two volumes of memoirs have all the time been in print there, translated into Thai.

Leonowens’s time in Siam solely grew to become identified with the publication of a 1944 biography by Margaret Landon known as Anna and the King of Siam. 

This grew to become the premise of the 1951 musical which opened on Broadway to rave critiques for its stars Yul Brynner and Gertrude Lawrence. 

Two years later it transferred to London within the coronation yr of 1953, this time starring Herbert Lom as Mongkut and Valerie Hobson as Anna. 

It ran for an unbelievable 926 performances. Princess Margaret visited it a number of occasions and performed the hits on her piano at Clarence House, returning later with the Queen Mother to see it once more. 

The movie of the identical title was launched in 1956 starring Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr. 

In Britain alone there have been many revivals and the present present on the Dominion Theatre is the sixth West End model of the musical, testimony to the truth-bending creativity of Rogers and Hammerstein.