If you want to have a glimpse of traditional Myanmar anyient (dance and comedy show), the best place to see is in Mandalay. The Moustache Brothers Troupe (Mustache Brothers) is a group of banned anyient comedians, once famous among the people of Myanmar but now banned from performing in front of general public for their political activities. They perform their show every evening at 8:30 PM at their home in Mandalay. Because of restrictions imposed on the troupe, the performence cannot be done in full traditional costume. They perform their performence in normal dress, announcing that they are merely demonstrating what the actual Myanmar traditional anyient looks like. This is a mean to circumvent their public performence restriction.
The three moustache brothers are Par Par Lay, Lu Maw and Lu Zaw. Par Par Lay used to be a very well known comedian in Myanmar, until his arrest and prison sencente, together with one of his brothers, for seven years. They were arrested after their performence in 1995 at the Myanmar Independence Day performence at NLD head quarter (then at the house of Aung San Su Kyi). They were released in 2000, after serving five of their seven years term, but are still banned from public performence.
The following short video clip shows their performence in English.
Here are the videos of their performence at Moustache Brothers from Mandalay.
You can visit the Moustache Brothers at their house in 39th Street, between 80th and 81st streets, Mandalay. (Any taxi driver or trishaw driver knows their place). You can also buy the T-shirt of the Moustache Brothers at 5000 kyats each.
Editor’s Note: Many of the above information has been obtained from our reference book Lonely Planet Guide to Myanmar (Burma)
