Theatre Workshop by Madoka Okada

By Manjari Kaul

On the 23rd of January, the Kaden Theatrical Art Company in association with Japan Foundation, New Delhi organized a workshop on Japanese theatrical techniques and stylistics. Madoka Okada, the co-director of the play 'Looking In & Out', staged at the 14th Bharat Rang Mahotsav conducted the workshop with two others from his theatre company.

The team displayed certain standard stances and movements of the classical Japanese dramas, Noh and Kabuki. The importance of channelizing the energy inside our bodies to observe those stances during performance was also discussed.

"It is important to make our bodies still. Stillness brings silence," said Okada.

The discussion on energy reminded me of a book by theatre researcher, Eugenio Barba, called A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology: The Secret Art of the Performer in which the writer points out that in Noh, the term energy can be translated as 'ki-hai' which means the profound agreement (hai) of the spirit (ki) with the body. Spirit here is used in the sense of spirit as 'pnema', breath. The Sanskrit word, 'prana', points out Barba, is equivalent to 'ki-hai'.

That movement as well as stillness can be a visible form of language, was discussed. A gesture can be way of communicating a feeling, a mood or words. The performers presented snippets from their play 'Looking In & Out' to illustrate the concept of movement as visible language.

Emphasis was laid on concentration during performance. The mind should be able to concentrate in such a way that it can look at the body from outside it. To achieve balance in one's posture during dance and performance it is important to concentrate on the body's centre.

The Japanese tradition of voice control in a modern day context was discussed. Okada also spoke about how he deploys light as an element in his production that not just sets the mood and alters the perception of the scene but acts as a co actor in the play.

The informative and educative workshop culminated in the participants learning a few basic stances and movements of Classical Japanese theatre. The participants shared performance space with the experts to learn how to establish a well balanced yet fluid body during performance. 

A Review of 'Looking In & Out'

By Manjari Kaul

Looking In & Out was performed on the 15^th of January, 2012 at National School of Drama as part of their annual festival called Bharat Rang Mahotsav. Commissioned by The Japan Foundation, this production has been primarily inspired by women who have had to face physical and mental violence. The main aim of the play is to draw attention to gender and how it functions within different cultures, ways of living and points of view. Through this process of discovery of new possibilities and acceptance of one's subconscious motivations.

The play, Looking In & Out is based on the story, In a Grove, by Japanese writer, Ryunosuke Akutagawa. This story is about a man and a woman who are attacked by bandits in a grove, and who eventually come to different conclusions about what happened, based on their perspectives. The play witnesses a merger of theatrical styles and media. Using minimum spoken text traditional and contemporary, Indian and Japanese styles, the play uses the actor's body as a sign to be interpreted.

In this adaptation of In a Grove a detective sets off on a day when it is raining torrentially , to investigate the case of a murder and rape of a woman. Unfazed by the violence of the case, he orders a mutton seekh kabab at the crime site. He encounters different tellings of the same tale that reveal the workings of sexual jealousy and violence in gender relations. The play rejects the beaten path of linear narrative and a singular style of execution within one play. Juxtaposed with the ramblings of the detective are highly stylized movements performed by the other actors who depict the power dynamics of heterosexual man-woman relations. The actors are not assigned particular characters in the play, instead they carry fluid identities. The play explores, in this way, the feminine in men and the masculine within women.

In the end, the order of the seekh kabab stands cancelled as the delivery boy is unable to make it. With even slighter degree of disappointment as compared to the cancelled order, the detective shuts the case of the murdered lady. The case yet unsolved, screams of hundreds of neglected cases of violence against women. Looking In & Out brings to light brutality against women's bodies and psyches and a certain notion of beauty that they must fit into.

-Manjari Kaul

The Cast and Crew of Looking In & Out

Directors: Madoka Okada, Savita Rani

Group: Kaden Theatre Art Company

Language: Japanese, English, Hindi

Cast: Madoka Okade, Kotoe Tomita, Takako Abe, Savita Rani, Sujith Shanker

Lighting: Sahoko Oshima

Music: Toshiyuki Ochiai

Sound Design: Vipin Bhardwaj

Media Artist: Amitesh Grover

Space Design: Firos Khan

Co-ordinator: Nihal Kardam

Images Courtesy Kaden Theatre Art Company

Introspecting the Interior and the Exterior of Performance

Manjari Kaul from Cine Darbaar, in conversation with the directors (Madoka Okada and Savita Rani) and the cast (Takako Abe and Sujith Shanker) of Looking In and Out.

The play, Looking In & Out is based on the story, In a Grove, by Japanese writer, Ryunosuke Akutagawa. This story is about a man and a woman who are attacked by bandits in a grove, and who eventually come to different conclusions about what happened, based on their perspectives. The complexities of the plot reflect the parallel complexities of different gender identities in today’s world.

This production, fuses contemporary with traditional styles, Indian cultures with Japanese. It is an improvisational performance and relies minimally on text.

Cine Darbaar: 60 years of India Japan Peace treaty. Do you see your selves as cultural ambassadors of your country?

Madoka Okada: For me it's not about 60 years of the two States coming together in an agreement. I am an artist form Japan and I am collaborating with an Indian (Savita Rani, the co director of the play) who is working in the field of contemporary performance. It's the amalgamation of two different stand points that matters.

Savita Rani: The celebration of the India-Japan ties is what has given us the opportunity for this cultural exchange. This chance to exchange ideas with Madoka Okada and his team has been enriching. These differences of culture when they interact with each result in a completely new product.

Sujith Shanker: This is not the first of India-Japan interactions. We have moved beyond looking at India and Japan as possessing a fixed identity. Specially in India there are so many different cultures. We cannot represent a singular identity that would apply to all of India. We are interacting and discussing each other's experiences as individuals.

Takako Abe: I see this as an individual journey. I am curious about what Savita, Madoka or Sujith think rather than think that a person thinks the way she does because she is Japanese. The fact we belong to different cultures are a part of the differences we embody as individuals, not the whole.

CD: Please tell me about Looking In & Out, its making and what it means to you as an individual.

SR: I have personally been very interested in the female body. Speech has its limits. Some things exceed the limits of speech and have a violent affect on my body and mind. When I started working on this project I wanted to explore the everyday violence on a woman's body. Thousands of years have passed but the way the female body is looked at remains the same. The well sculpted body of Mallika Sherawat is compared to the bottle of a cold drink. Where have we progressed in this globalized “developed” world? The check on the female body remains. If a woman protests with violently she's labelled “ feminist” as a term of abuse. For me this project is a looking into myself and out again in a process rather than a production.

MO: My approach to the subject is from what I am, a philosophical point of view. There is a woman in every person. It is that aspect that I am exploring.

SS: When Savita spoke to me about her idea about women and popular culture I thought I would approach it form the point of view of looking at hierarchies in masculinity. We are not just looking at act of physical violence but violence of the through cliché images and stereotypes that force us to act in a certain way to be accepted. We are trying to create a theatrical intervention to express this and not  convey things through simple sloganeering.

TA: As compared to India  the amount of stress on women's bodies are made invisible in Japan. This has been a process of self exploration for me.

CD: Does the language barrier cause an impediment or does it give other additional dimensions to your process of creating a collaborative production.

MO: Sometimes the language difference is a problem and at other times it helps in creating something good. As theatre people we have the ability to move and understand each other in ways other than language. Body language is not a universal code either. In some cultures nodding sideways is a way of showing acceptance. But there are ways in which a person mood, acceptance or denial can be made out. One of them is through the eyes.

SR: It is not so difficult to communicate in spite of the language difference. We are constantly trying to find new ways of communication. Even communication through words in a common language can be lost in translation. The words I speak may not have the same association and significance for you as hey do for me.

SS: There is no problem. Even in an audience there exists mutiliguality. The reality in India is that we speak one language at home, one in the autorickshaw and another at office or school. In theatre we engage with multilinguality even gibberish. We are like a harmony, each one plays their different notes but to the audience it seems like a melodious tune.

TA:  We communicate face to face, body to body so language is no barrier. It creates an opportunity for creative improvisations as for me a word shouted out in Hindi is a sound and I react to it as that, lending it my own meaning through my performance.

CD: In conclusion, what do you wish to convey to your audience through this play?

MO: We wish to involve the audience in our discussion of the issue and say that what is your problem is my problem, is our problem.

-Manjari Kaul

The play, Looking In & Out will be performed at the National School of Drama, New Delhi on the 15^th of January, 2012. 

For the same interview published in The Hindu check out http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/article2818448.ece#.TxrzI0WpmEQ.gmail