The Rise and Fall of Dionysus: Suzuki Tadashi and Greek Tragedy

Abstract

TheRiseandFallofDionysus: Suzuki TadashiandGreek Tragedy MARIANNE MCDONALD Ç vJuzukiTadashi is often called"Japan's bestknown director."1 WhenI first beganwriting aboutSuzuki's workat thebeginning ofthe1990s,there was hardly anything inEnglish except hisowntranslated book,TheWayof Acting, apartfrom notesin variousprograms. Now there aremajorbooks,andnoworkthat claims tocover Japanese theatre comprehensively can omithim.Paul Allainin his The Artof Stillness (2002) devotesa lot of attention to Suzuki'sactingtechnique and spaces;Ian Carruthers and TakahashiYasunariin The Theatreof Suzuki Tadashi (2004)offer a comprehensive treatment ofthehistorical development ofSuzuki's work.2 Thesebookscomplement each other well. From renting a facility abovetheMonChéri coffee shopin Tokyoin the 1960s,and forming his first company, the WasedaShôgekijô (Waseda Little Theatre), Suzuki went onto spearhead majortheatres inthree locations inJapan(Toga, Mito,and Shizuoka)withthehelpof thegreatarchitect Isozaki Arata. In1974,hebecame artistic director ofIwanami HallinTokyo, buthewasnotthat happy with thecity. He associatedhimself withToga in 1976 and formed SCOT (Suzuki Company ofToga).In 1989,Suzuki left Togato be theartistic director fortheActing Company Mito'sTheatre (A.T.M.),butthen moved ontobethedirector ofShizuoka's Performing Arts Center (S.P.A.C.) in1995.Ineachcase,he gottempting offers hecouldn't refuse. IntheUnited States, he hastaught attheUniversity ofCalifornia inSanDiego(intermittently inthelate1970sandearly '80s);theUniversity of ARION I7.3 WINTER 2OIO 56 THE RISE AND FALL OF DIONYSUS Wisconsin atMilwaukee(1980-84); theJulliard School,New York (1981-83) and Columbia University. In 1992 he cofounded SITI (theSaratogaInternational TheatreInstitute) in SaratogaSprings inNew YorkwithAnnBogart. BesidesJapanesetraditionaland moderntheatre(includingJapan 'sown absurdists likeBetsuyakuMinoru) and the variousmartialarts,majorinfluences on SuzukiincludeAntoninArtaudand histheatre ofcruelty, Jerzy Grotowski and his poor theater,and Samuel Beckett - to say nothingof what he learnedfromhis theatrical hosts,such as France's Jean-LouisBarrault,England's PeterBrook, and Greece's TheodorosTerzopoulos.Suzuki'sdramaalso echoesaspects of Brecht'sVerfremdungseffekt (alienationeffect),besides his own stylizationderived in part fromthe traditional Japanesetheatre. DisillusionedwithAmericanrealisttheatre(Arthur Miller et al.), and also thenaturalist imitations of westerndrama performed by the Shimpa/Shingeki (New Theatre) movementsince the late nineteenth century, he turnedto the Greeksforinspiration, particularly the plays of Euripides, which show charactersas victimsof a chaotic universe. Greekdrama,likeJapaneseNoh, features maskedmale actors ,a chorusoffering commentary, and fluteand drummusic . Bothcreatereligiousdrama (gods appear in both) and define maninrelationto lifeand deathand hisvariousobligations to government and family.Both advocate insight into "what is," particularly seeingclearlyone's limitations and dutiesto thegods,country, and family. Actorsin Greek tragedy and Noh dramasharea sortofdivinepower,one inspiredby Dionysus,theotherinvokingchthonicdeitiesby stampingon thewooden floor(whichhad hollowscreated byinverted bowlsto increasetheresonance). 3This also had religious significance, sinceearlierstamping ritualswereemployedto appease theonryô,or recently dead.4 Bothforms oftheatre showedpeak moments inthelivesof theirheroesand heroines, who weredefinedbywhat some wouldsee as absurdacts.Poetry and musicwerethewaysof Marianne McDonald 57 communication: these canbestconvey theephemeral distillationof "whatis" andtheillusions ofperception. TheJapanese have an expression, ichigo, ichie: "one time,one meeting," which describes thetransient moment inwhich life andperception consist. Theatre andpoetry attempt tocapture this. BothGreek tragedy, particularly Euripides, andJapanese Nohdramashowed thelimitations of"rationalism" oranything resembling logical positivism. Movement wasas importantas wordsfortheaudience, andsilence couldreveal the most eloquent moments. Thisrelationship between theactors andtheaudience waswellcovered byZeami.5 Suzuki sawa development intheWest from Greek tragedy to Beckett, as inJapanthere was from Noh dramato the workofBetsuyaku andMurakami. He assimilates thatdevelopment intohiswork.As a director heis a type ofmidwife , giving birth tonewversions ofwhatpeoplehadcome toviewas traditional. Somesaythat histrue originality isinhisacting technique, TheSuzuki Method, which isnowtaught around theworld. Thistechnique combines bodycontrol withscuttling and stamping that reinforces man'slinktotheearth ("thegrammarofthefeet "),and exercises intheuse ofthebodyto create imaginative shapes that explore itslimitations andcapabilities . There isalsogreat emphasis onbreathing. Theancient Chinese artofQigongandtraditional martial artsnot onlyemphasize theconnection totheearth, butalsoseethe breath as thesource oflifeandenergy (ki)9 anditsfocusin thelowercentral body, thehara,is essential forharnessing one'sforce. Stamping grounds theactorandreinforces the relationship totheearth; ithelpsbalance, something essentialnotonlyto theatre butthemartial arts.The Suzuki method developsfootwork and thestrength of thelower bodyas wellas breathing techniques andconcentration. For instance, Shiraishi Kayokowasaskedhowsheso seamlessly transformed herself from theoldqueenHecubatotheyoung virgin Cassandra inTheTrojanWomen, andsheanswered, "I change thewayI breathe."6 Itisa modern useofNohand 58 THE RISE AND FALL OF DIONYSUS Kabuki techniquesand traditional martialartsthatprovide energyand originality to modernperformances of drama, and theseare fundamental to theSuzukitechnique. Justas his performedtheatreis based on pre-existing work, one can see how the physical techniques Suzuki teachesare based on thoseofNoh, Kabuki,and themartial arts.However,I thinkhe also learnedmuchfromthephysical theatreof JerzyGrotowskiand, later,Theodoros Terzopoulos ,who also subjectedthebodyto vigoroustraining, to thepointof exhaustion;bothdevelopedtheirtechniques as alternatives to thepopularand conventional theatre they knew.In additionto the use of...