ASIAN THEATRE JOURNAL最新文献

Reviewed by:

• Dancing the Dharma: Religious and Political Allegory In Japanese Noh Theater by Susan Blakeley Klein
• Justine Wiesinger

Susan Blakeley Klein’s Dancing the Dharma: Religious and Political Allegory in Japanese Noh Theater makes a compelling argument for attention to the context of the period in which noh plays were written and to the reception practices and strategies that late medieval people might have brought to the work in the fourteenth century. Klein tells us that in the twentieth century, noh was typically appreciated and taught in a universalized, ahistorical mode that ignored or minimized the context of each play’s original performance circumstances, contemporaneous esoteric religious interpretations, and heritage of literary allegories (p. 8). By bringing forward these aspects through reference to the context of production as well as the “secret” literary and religious knowledge to which the composers and some receivers of these works were privy, Klein provides examples of how a reader can derive more richly layered and consequential understandings of what a play was intended to communicate in its time. In some cases, these understandings have been lost centuries ago, resulting in revisions or abandonment of texts whose meanings or intent became unclear due to reliance on specific subtextual knowledge. Klein’s textual strategies therefore offer the possibility of revitalization for “difficult” plays and new appreciation of the impact of others.

Dancing the Dharma is organized in three parts. Part 1 of the book lays the groundwork for Klein’s later analyses, introducing medieval practices of allegoresis and poetic appreciation. She shows that polysemy and multiple identities were key to the reception of texts, particularly classical texts, at the highest level. This practice of allegorical interpretation itself has political import in the medieval period as a way to work around inconsistencies in classical texts in order to strengthen the cachet of Japan’s culture. At the same time, Klein [End Page 224] points out that multivalent readings also had religious potency in a syncretic belief system that paired foreign and domestic deities, allowing a single figure appearing in a play to maintain multiple identities. These layers of identity and interpretation especially proliferated as prominent historical people depicted in noh plays were vested with secret divine identities. The multiplicity of identity also offers enhanced opportunities to create resonances between dramatic characters and noh patrons’ favored deitie

Abstract:

Dancers with disabilities are increasingly participating in performances throughout Asia. In this article, based on long-term research, I provide an analysis of changeABLE cohesion, a mixed-abled, intercultural performance co-created by Sri Lankan dancers and Gerda König, choreographer of the renowned German DIN A13 dance company. The article focuses on the experiences and interpretations of the dancers, analyzing the creative process they employed as well as the long-term impacts that participation in changeABLE cohesion had on their lives and work. By providing the perspectives of multiple actors, the article seeks to demonstrate how an expansive ethnographic approach can enrich our understanding of disability and intercultural performances and provide the means to more accurately address the many thorny ethical questions they raise.

Abstract:

This article is a scholarly expansion of my previous public writing in HowlRound entitled “Iranian Blackface Clowns are Racist, No Matter How You Sugarcoat Them in Obscure Archaic Mythology.” In the essay, I argue siāh-bāzi, an Iranian form of popular entertainment that features a main character in blackface, is indeed a racialized mockery of the African slaves who were brought to Iran from the sixteenth to early twentieth centuries. In the present article, I delve deeper into the history of slavery in Iran as a context for sāh-bāzi. I also analyze the embodiment techniques in siāh-bāzi to demonstrate its racial connotations.

Abstract:

Although many Sinhala-speaking plays created in Sri Lanka after the 1960s focused on contemporary political and social issues, there were surprisingly few theatre productions that addressed the civil war, a significant political crisis in Sri Lanka. Additionally, those few plays that addressed the Civil War failed to provide an opposing thought to the racist ideology that led to the Civil War. Therefore, the purpose of this report is to discuss the issues that caused Sinhala-speaking theatre to pay less attention to the civil war. French philosopher Louis Althusser claimed that “The Ideological State Apparatuses function massively and predominantly by ideology, but they also function secondarily by repression” (Althusser 1971: 145). Along with the argument by Althusser, I will also explore how ideology and repression weaken the significance of the war for the Sinhala-speaking theatre during wartime.

Abstract:

This article traces the performance history of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus in Iran, focusing on the most recent production of the play directed by Mostafa Koushki (b. 1984), performed between 2019 and 2020 in Tehran, Iran, and Kerala, India. Based on an original in-person interview with Koushki conducted by one of the authors in Tehran in July 2020, the article discusses how the production reflected and responded to the country’s volatile political climate. The analysis considers how various elements, including the minimalist set and costumes as well as gender-neutral casting, work together to communicate the production’s criticism of the current state of affairs in the Islamic Republic while staying within the boundaries imposed on theatre performances by the Iranian censorship regime.

Abstract:

This article analyzes the transformation of xiqu (traditional Chinese theatre) performance space in Republican China (1912–1949), focusing on the performances in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. It investigates the institutional and habitus differences compared to larger urban areas, and changes in admission rules, particularly the implementation of ticketed admission, which transformed temples into commercial theatres. Disputes over ticketed admission, involving local officials, residents, and Japanese, emerged due to the new admission rules, which differentiated between audience and non-audience members and regulated entry into the performance space. This monetization strategy contributed to the reorganization of the local entertainment market and was followed by the conversion of temples into commercial theatres during the 1930s. This article argues that an alternative “modernization” process and spatial politics rooted in the aspiration to build a modern state was nurtured by cultural interactions but also emerged from the local context, which profoundly influenced the local spatial understanding and local society. This process was closely linked to, yet distinct from, colonial modernization. The development of cities modernized by colonization had become one of the main driving forces behind the development of the cities within their radius.

Abstract:

Changgeuk Lear of the National Changgeuk Company of Korea presents an intriguing case of interculturalism. Produced in 2022 by an elite creative team representative of Korean theatre, Lear is remarkable for its lack of traditional spectacles that have characterized many Korean Shakespeare performances. This essay analyzes the transcultural esthetics of changgeuk Lear in comparison to the Koreanized spectacle of changgeuk Romeo and Juliet (2009), placing both productions in the history of changgeuk and the efforts to popularize the genre in the global age. The ontology of Lear is underpinned by a new notion of living tradition promoted by Kim Sung-Nyeo, which I relate to the concept of transculturation. I propose to reclaim the term transculturality for intercultural performance discourses, thereby deconstructing the false dichotomy of Korea as tradition and the West as modernity. Through a dynamic fusion of traditional chang and global art forms, changgeuk Lear creates a transcultural “K-opera” that represents a renewed sense of Koreanness.

Reviewed by:

• Imigure Kaidan (Immigrant Ghost Stories)
• Beri Juraic

The award-winning playwright and director Kamisato Yudai premiered his latest work Imigure Kaidan (Immigrant Ghost Stories) at the end of October 2022 in a small theatre space at the recently opened Naha Cultural Arts Theater NAHArt. I had the privilege to see the premiere and observe the rehearsal process. Like many of Kamisato’s previous works, the piece features prominently themes of crossing borders and migration, multilingualism, history and geography, and life versus death. These themes are inspired both by his personal experiences traveling in South America, Asia, and Japan and by the stories and anecdotes he had heard from others. While Immigrant Ghost Stories might be infused by the same motifs as previous work, it is also evident that this piece re-thinks theatre and the theatre-making process from the perspective of a foreigner or immigrant by using the metaphor of ghosts and monsters (yūrei and yōkai) crossing borders.

When Kamisato won the Kishida Kunio Prize for Drama in 2018 for The Story of Descending the Long Slopes of Valparaíso, it initiated a debate about whether the piece could be considered a theatre play. This prompted him to write a blog post entitled “Gikyoku ni tsuite kangaeru koto” (Thinking about Plays), in which he wrote: “I always write words with people speaking them in mind. What I care about is how the words are uttered, the kind of rhythm, the lingering memories the text [End Page 211] produces, and how the speaker’s body changes” (Kamisato 2018).¹ Kamisato’s new work exposes this approach effectively to the audience. The unusual rehearsal process for this piece contributes to its success. To illustrate, the rehearsals took place in Tokyo and Naha (Okinawa), with only Kamisato traveling back and forth to rehearse with each performer individually. The performers therefore did not meet to rehearse collectively until the final week before the premiere. The production team was also not allowed in the rehearsals, but they could watch over Zoom, in real-time or via recordings. The rehearsals consisted principally of discussions, listening, and only a minimal amount of staging until the performers came together toward the end of the process. As a result, during the performance the audience has to listen attentively to fully comprehend the visual aspects. Kamisato nevertheless facilitates this task through his text which consistently throws at us both simplistic explanations and poetic complexities.