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Theatrical Pillage in Asia: Redirecting the Intercultural Traffic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2009

John Russell Brown
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Abstract

The potential and the problems of multicultural theatre have frequently been described and debated in this as in other theatre journals, but discussions of its value and viability have generally been in ethical terms – over how far it is possible for the West to ‘import’ or otherwise employ the theatrical traditions of other cultures without resort to an imperialist appropriation of what is found ‘consumable’, to the detriment of the culture thus despoiled. While not ignoring the moral arguments, John Russell Brown here deals also with the practical issues – notably, how far different kinds of theatre depend on being ‘site-specific’ not only in terms of the performers involved, but also in terms of audiences and their responses. He argues that, paradoxically, truly intercultural theatre is more often to be found where western influences from Hollywood films or pop music have become part of the lived experience of eastern cultures, or in western communities where (for example) British and West Indian or ‘Anglo’ and Latino-American traditions have become intertwined. He suggests that rather than trying to embrace the substance of ‘other’ traditions, western theatre might better benefit by exploring the conventions that modulate the relationship between actors and audience, or the approach of the actor to different kinds of ‘text’. He concludes: ‘By using overseas research to develop its own inheritance, a theatre might discover what it alone needs to create and encourage a more active and imaginative response from its local audience.’ A widely published writer on drama and theatre, John Russell Brown was first Head of the University of Birmingham's Department of Drama and Theatre Arts, and was subsequently an Associate Director at the National Theatre in London. Currently he is visiting Professor at Columbia University, New York.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Theatre Quarterly , Volume 14 , Issue 53 , February 1998 , pp. 9 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

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References

Notes and References

1. This article is a development of an earlier one, ‘Theatrical Tourism’, published in Journal of Literature and Aesthetics (Kollam, Kerala, India, 1997), V, i, p. 19–30. The kind permission of the editor is acknowledged with grateful thanks.

2. Interview in Marie-Claire (April 1986), quoted in The Intercultural Performance Reader, ed. Pavis, Patrice (London; New York: Routledge, 1996), p. 97Google Scholar; and interview with Delgado, Maria M., in In Contact with the Gods? Directors Talk Theatre, ed. Delgado, Maria M. and Heritage, Paul (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996), p. 188Google Scholar.

3. There Are No Secrets: Thoughts on Acting and Theatre (London: Methuen, 1993), p. 22.

4. At Sadlers Wells Theatre, London, July 1994.

5. Arden, John described the effect of a visit by a handful of academics to the Chhau dance-drama of Purulia in Bengal in To Present the Pretence: Essays on the Theatre and its Public (London; Methuen, 1977), p. 139–52Google Scholar.

6. Or, of course, puppets of various kinds manipulated by live persons.

7. Schechner, Richard, The Future of Ritual: Writings on Culture and Performance (London: Routledge, 1993), p. 4–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8. This term is used significantly by Barba, Eugenio in Beyond the Floating Islands (New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications, 1986)Google Scholar.

9. ‘Japanese Traces in Robert Wilson's Productions’, The Intercultural Performance Reader, op. cit., p. 111. Visiting the Sopanam theatre company in Trivandrum, Kerala, in late 1995, the present writer met a young actor from Delhi who had spent a whole year learning the company's very active performance style, which is derived from local martial arts and Brahmin temple songs. This student could physically do all that was required of him when he was cast in one of the repertoire's plays, but had been unable to perform adequately in this assumed theatrical language – although the will to do so was strong, for he was seeking an alternative to the verbally-based styles that he had been taught previously and had found too limited.

10. Theatre at the Crossroads of Culture, trans. Kruger, Loren (London; New York: Routledge, 1992), p. 202Google Scholar.

11. In June 1993, Keith Khan's Moti Roti, Puttli Clunni, drawing on Indian film and theatre as well as British theatre, was a huge success with multicultural audiences at the Theatre Royal, Stratford, in the East End of London. On the strength of this, Khan was commissioned to create another production two years later combining Trinidadian carnival with British theatre, to be premiered at the Royal Court in West London. But here audiences were small and unable to respond with pleasure to what was part of their daily lives.

12. Op. cit., p. 58–60.