Heresy or creative
solution?: 25 years of the Noho Theatre Group's Beckett productions
International Samuel Beckett Symposium in Tokyo 2006
September 29 – October 1
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Heresy or creative
solution?: 25 years of the Noho Theatre Group's Beckett productions |
| Jonah
Salz |
| Exactly
twenty-five years ago, the Noho Theatre Group of Kyoto debuted with an
evening of Fluxus music and short pantomimes Act Without Words 1 + 2 by Samuel
Beckett. Founded by American director Jonah Salz and kyogen classical
comedy actor Akira Shigeyama, Noho has attempted to interpret western
texts through noh and kyogen techniques and spirit, touring frequently
abroad. Since 1981, The Noho Theatre Group has performed a dozen
short plays by Samuel Beckett including Japanese premieres of Ohio Impromptu, Rockabye, Rough for
Theatre 1, and the world premiere of Quad 1 + 2. Noho attempts to strike
a balance between a native interpretation and authenticity. On the one
hand, we only employ Beckett's words--except for character names--in
stage translations adapted by Yukio Gohro from Yasunari Takahashi. Yet
transposed to the noh stage and style creates numerous crises of
interpretation, which we attempt to solve creatively. We employ live
instead of taped voices masks, music, on-stage stage assistants, and
occasionally extra characters. Is it "denaturing" Beckett, or
re-inventing him in a new genre: noh-kyogen fusion? Beckett
himself gave some endorsement of our methods, acknowledging that Noho
was "translating culture," not merely the language. Today I would like
to introduce the first quarter century of Noho's plays, using video and
slides before attempting to explore the practical and philosophical
resonances between Beckett and noh-kyogen theatre. |
| Prof.
of comparative theatre, Faculty of Intercultural Communication, Ryukoku
University, Kyoto |
| Borderless
Beckett: International Samuel Beckett Symposium in Tokyo 2006 September 29 – October 1 |