Dancing Hamlet in a world of frogs: butoh and the actor’s inner landscape

Abstract

Butoh has joined the myriad alternative forms employed by Western theatre makers who seek out intercultural dialogue in their quest for theatrical ‘truth’, in the resonantly human sense. This article investigates one such intercultural collision in Greg Hicks, a classically trained actor who has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company for 30 years, who uses butoh techniques for developing the interior world of his characters. Hicks’ working methods are explored through the filter of the author’s own experiences in butoh, and compared to methods and aims of working with imagery in Michael Chekhov technique.