Mishima's Cosmic Noh Drama: "The Damask Drum"

Abstract

tions and opinions . . . and after discarding all our everyday pretenses . . . shows us in a state of absolute helplessness, disclosing, giving and finding ourselves. Through shock . . . we will be able to give ourselves to that something that we cannot describe, but in which Eros and Caritas live.5 literary text, which for Grotowski had never been anything more than a point of departure reduced to its essentials, can now be dispensed with entirely. Performance likewise was never more than a means, not an end in itself. In Grotowski's paratheatrical activities, actor and viewer merge into participant or celebrant in a process whereby inner inhibitions and acquired habits are thrown off in an effort to reach the spiritual essence common to all. evolution of Grotowski's visionary goals has ever been toward greater purification: first the playwright was abolished, then the stage, finally the actor. All that remains are the celebrants and the master. In his paratheatrical seminars and exercises Holiday, The University of Explorations of the Theatre of Nations, Opening, Special Projects, Venture Mountain and The Tree of People Grotowski has brought together people of various nationalities and professions, ages and races, meeting in different countries and settings, as part of his unending quest to break down barriers that prevent man from reaching what lies hidden in his soul. Both Grotowski's poor the tre and his paratheatrical activities have in common the desire o strip away false layers of convention, to penet ate the myths that link past, present and future, and to uncover the symbols that are common to all. In his ay, Grotowski declares, we can re-create the feeling of unity and purification known in ancient tragedy but lost to us in modern society. Suggesting that each of us can participate in the cosmic drama that constantly surrounds us, Grotowski most recently advises that we should forget ourselves, make less nois and e rn to coexist with the wind, trees and s ars.6 true theatre is everywhere around us.