Dogme for Drama?

With so much great film and TV coming from Denmark I wonder if we can make a vow of chastity for the stage?  

1. Filming must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in. If a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found.
2. The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. Music must not be used unless it occurs within the scene being filmed, i.e., diegetic.
3. The camera must be a hand-held camera. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. The film must not take place where the camera is standing; filming must take place where the action takes place.
4. The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable (if there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).
5. Optical work and filters are forbidden.
6. The film must not contain superficial action (murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)
7. Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden (that is to say that the film takes place here and now).
8. Genre movies are not acceptable.
9. The film format must be Academy 35 mm.
10. The director must not be credited.

Looking for clues

What a time it has been.  Here I am staring at my blog so unloved for some time.   Since the last post we have seen  Kevin Spacey in R3, performed in the grounds of the school during lightening  and  had the wonderful Nose2Nose Theatre group with us[see photo].   But I have red eye and I promised to celebrate ANZac day with some folks.  So I must exit stage left.   I have not even begun to talk about the extraordinary voice of Kimbra.   What would Phillip Larkin say?  “I wouldn't mind seeing China if I could come back the same day.”

The uninhabited man

Life is routine with moments of serendipity and coincidence. One of my IB classes is working on a version of Goldilocks. I have asked them to fuse Kyogen and Butoh. Which makes the lovely word: Kyo-Toh. They grapple with the forms of each and decide which to use. Beautifully sliding feet and ugly gazes. Moments of stillness and frenzy. Later that day I drive home and press CD. Richard Thompson is singing The Uninhabited Man; one of my favourites. [title link above] As people drive badly around me I am soothed by Richard. Then I hear his chorus. 'Whose been sleeping in my bed...' and I smile at the happy collisions and coincidence. The IBO asks us to synthesise and make connections. Is it 6 degrees of separation? The next day the class lie on the floor and listen to, 'who's been sitting in my chair...' Today it happens again. An ex colleague and chum is flying into the island from Japan. He does not know that I have had an e-mail about a student transferring from Japan to Phuket. The tsunami of course. My old student may become my new ...er..old new student. Connections. What next today? One of my present students is called Storm. She is Australian and African. I have a feeling I am going to walk through a deluge of rain this evening, past a bar called Gale, and meet a man from Ghana who knows Wole Soyinka but has never heard of Richard Thompson. Life is routine with moments of.....

Curriculum Design: from Greeks to Geeks

That title is enough to put anyone off. Apologies. I have been from Greece to South Africa today working on how to impart the wonders of Theatre to my two lovely IB theatre groups. How do I make it fun yet focussed? How do I link the Oresteia to the Truth & Reconciliation Committee in South Africa. Because we have to make connexions, you see. One student asked about Jacobean Revenge Tragedy and I was off after Webster. And now the plot summary is in front of me for The White Devils. It is complicated. That is Revenge Tragedy for you. Then to Complicite and 'devising from text'. All great stuff. And a stumble into a blog or two. So there we are on a hot sunday. From Greeks to Geeks. This entry is short and shallow.

Who is Joe Louis?

According to wikipedia Joe Louis was the Word Heavyweight Boxing champion from 1937 to 1949. That is a long time in Boxing, hence the longevity of his name. Then I arrived at my new school in Thailand and a local teacher told me something else. She told me that Mr Louis was coming to school. I was non-plussed. I read this a bit later: Sakorn Yangkhiawsod, (more widely known as Joe Louis), the founder of the Hun Lakhon Lek Joe Louis Troupe, was one of Thailand's top puppet masters and the country's last 'Grand Master' of small puppet performers. Six months ago someone warned me that there would be no culture in Southern Thailand. Well, Mr Louis' Troupe are coming to school. Will it be the Ramayana? Will it be similar to Japanese Bunraku? I went to Bunraku earlier this year, for the first time, expecting boredom. I nearly wept when the two puppets committed suicide. The three puppet masters evaporated before me. It is time to do some research. Here is a start: The Joe Louis puppet play requires the synchronised efforts of three puppeteers who jointly control and manipulate the one puppet creating highly animated, life-like movements. This enables the puppet to move or dance gracefully. Unlike any other Thai traditional puppet play, the Joe Louis puppets are able to mimic a range of human gestures and through these gestures, express emotion. For example, the puppets are able to move their wrists to 'wai' (a greeting gesture in Thai culture), or embrace (to show affection), point their fingers or clap, shake their heads or nod. The elegant movements of the puppet flow entirely from each motion made by the puppeteer. [ from the website in the link ] It is a beginning. It compares with Bunraku. Time to go here I think: http://www.accu.or.jp/ich/en/arts/A_THA2.html

Bunraku at last

Finally. After twelve years of living in the Kanto plains I take myself to the National Theatre of Japan. It is a building I do not like. Like many government buildings in Tokyo it is not friendly to visitors. We are kept outside in freezing conditions while the attendants inside busy themselves with minor work which requires no eye contact with the folks who have paid at least ¥5000 stuck outside. Once inside there is a helpful desk to hire an English translation of the performance. This is helpful and vital. It is not free. However the accompanying guide is in English too. But little else.One would have thought that with an 18% drop in tourists more could be done to welcome non-speakers of Japanese. As I looked around I saw no other foreign person. Of course you wonder. Twelve years in Japan. He has not learnt the language? I know. I know. I am ashamed. I am not a linguist. But to the show. We were lucky to get a guided tour backstage. The puppet was revealed. The master explained the manipulations. We stood where they stand. And saw the gully. And the high shoes for the master so that his two assistants can duck below him. The play was a good one. The Love Suicides at Sonezaki. The Osaka company did not disappoint. The tension was exhausting. Would they do it? The title suggested so. But the final scene stretched the chord of tension tight. What did I learn? The singers change and spin in on a turn table. The main puppeter is visible but the rest wear KKK style black headgear. The story is shared with Kabuki. Japanese audience members require subtitles to understand it. The company is male. It held me. I was captivtaed by the manipulation of each puppet. The tragedy and the prolonged death wish. At one point I found that I had not put my ear piece back in and I was still visually held. I liked it.

Complicite in Tokyo

We were at the first night.  Complicite did not disappoint.  The cast enters in a line.  A brief introduction. Then things start happening. Curtains rise.  Birds flutter.  Actors rapidly change in the dusk.

Butoh, Bunraku, Kabuki elements were there.

Physical and ensemble theatre too. 

Tanizaki presents this impossible girl to us. A blind bitch.  And an unctuous servant/lover Sasuke.

A Brechtian narrator.  But mainly magical moments and visual splendour.  Do Complicite just illuminate but not inhabit?

At the end the curtain rises again to reveal white light, a line of actors and the cinematic display of crowds in modern Tokyo.  We are back to earth.