Cross-cultural collision and dialogue
“The language gap caused the biggest problems,” said Wang in a post-performance seminar. “That’s because language is more than just language: it also underpins culture and dramatic timing. Yet I believe that these problems are actually a source of interest…. Since we couldn’t communicate through language, we were forced to focus more on examining what exactly communication is.”
“Taiwan’s actors are more emotionally explicit,” Narumi observes. “On the other hand, when Japanese actors process emotions, they may stir huge waves within, but they are more constrained in their expression. I feel that this is one big difference.”
Consequently, when Wang Chia-ming writes scripts, he tries to arrange the actors in different combinations that highlight these disparities. “It creates different rhythms and chemistry…. There truly are differences…. The key thing is to make use of them.”
It has fostered more than just on-stage chemistry, notes Yukio Nitta, who also handled translation for the production: The early stages of rehearsals required a lot of translation for the two groups to understand each other. But by half way through the preparations, Nitta would only need to get through the first sentence of an explanation before Narumi would demonstrate with his expression that he understood without any need for further translation. The actors also shared a kind of tacit understanding communicated through their bodies, emotions and glances. This aspect of transnational cooperation is something that Nitta finds particularly interesting.
The exchange between the companies has entered its third year in 2018. Wang and Narumi plan on producing a stage adaptation of Café Lumière, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s homage to the work of the iconic Japanese film director Yasujiro Ozu.
Narumi emphasizes the need to think hard about how best to leverage the experience and mutual understanding gained from the past two years of collaboration to tackle the challenges of developing entirely new methods for the third year. Scratching his head at Narumi’s side, Wang blurts out, “Our biggest challenge right now is that we still don’t know what the heck we’re doing!” He then bursts into laughter.
Hearing the two directors’ reflections made me recall something else Narumi had said to me: “Theater is the best medium for revealing differences—which is to say that heterogeneity makes theater more interesting, because the medium absorbs differences to become more fun. That is the most fascinating aspect of collaborations.” The comment only makes me more eagerly await the fruits of this third year of Taiwanese‡Japanese collaboration, which is sure to produce a harvest ever weirder and more marvelous.
Morality and intimacy become sources of control, with family members exercising pervasive—if inadvertent—monitoring of each other via their expressions of discouragement or concern.
The play is the fruit of a second year of cooperation and exchange between Taiwan’s Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters Group and Japan’s Dainanagekijo.
With the collaboration between the Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters Group and Japan’s Dainanagekijo theater company, the lines uttered on this stage have become a mix of Chinese and Japanese.
The different approaches taken by the performers of the two nations, as well as the understanding between them, have made the fruits of their partnership particularly captivating.
When the constant surveillance of Orwell’s 1984 meets the family life of Chekhov’s Three Sisters, the group becomes the source of control.
The round stage conveys a sense of voyeurism and monitoring in interpersonal relations.
The round stage conveys a sense of voyeurism and monitoring in interpersonal relations. (photo by Chuang Kung-ju)
