FESTIVAL/TOKYO

Travels in narratives

Narratives have existed in society whatever the era. From the myths and folk stories and chronicles of old to fables, religious parables, novels and plays – humanity has constructed its civilizations and communities alongside a diversity of stories. The numbers of narratives woven by the human imagination are infinite, including both those based on actual events and fantastical fictions. They have been handed down across the ages, evolving into a variety of patterns. Today narratives are integrated into all manner of media and speech – television, manga, video game, TV advertising, marketing, online forums, urban legends – deeply affecting our actions and psyche.

Narratives exist not only within the community; they also depend on individuals. We live constantly updating our own stories, a fact of which it is hardly necessary to be aware. And yet, in a moment that story is discontinued, cracks suddenly open up in everyday life, the ones you care for die or your body and soul are both thrown into crisis. When faced with the loss of this story of “I” that you had spun up till then, we inquire again into our own selves. “Where am I (are we) from? What am I (are we)? Where am I (are we) going?” And then once more you would begin to spin a narrative of “I”...

In philosophy we have previously seen French thinker Jean-François Lyotard’s “collapse of the grand narrative”, whereby the large framework made up of the social systems, history and values that universally prescribe modern society has been relativized. And yet, we live thirty years on from Lyotard’s theory and know that in the world today the “grand narratives” have not simply ended. No matter how much the world fragments and how many infinite splinters of “micro narratives” there are, people are still unable to accept the absence of a grand narrative, and will rather concoct a simplified grand narrative to latch onto. We who live in the post-3.11 world certainly sense this feeling in the air. We must consider the role of “narrative” and artistic expression anew. What is narrative? Who is the self that tells a narrative? And just who has the right to tell a narrative? What is a narrative that is not merely a tool for empathy, assimilation or synchrony? Today the generation, consumption and reproduction of narrative is transforming according to the dramatic shifts in the media environment. Amongst this, what possibilities remain for the medium of theatre to continue to tell narratives?

For this year’s Festival/Tokyo, under the theme of “travels in narratives”, I want to re-encounter a variety of narratives that traverse era and space in order to face up to these inquiries. From distant history to future fiction, from stories that are personal to epic mythology, can we, through a journey freely traversing the range of narratives created by the human imagination, update our own narratives for the future?

3.11 brought fear and paralysis that went beyond fiction. And yet humanity has without doubt countless times experienced uncontrollable nature or unspeakable history. At these times humanity utilizes the imagination to create fiction that can once again construct a world and overcome the situation. Australian theatre company Back to Back Theatre portrays a humorous critique of fascism through a fantasy fiction in which the Hindu god Ganesh crosses over time to take back the Swastika, the symbol of happiness that Hitler stole. Indonesia Theatre of Studio, led by Nandang Aradea and winner of last year’s F/T Award for their bamboo-wielding, dynamic outdoor performance, for F/T13 will draw inspiration from the catastrophic 1883 Krakatoa eruption, creating a mythical fiction of the antagonism of humanity and nature. Following 3.11, it is also surely no coincidence that many artists in Japan began to shift their exploration from realism to the search for fiction. The twentieth century Russian cinema giant Andrei Tarkovsky is known for his pre-Chernobyl films like “Stalker” and “The Sacrifice” that prophetically depicted the nuclear threat. For F/T13 the playwright Masataka Matsuda and director Yukichi Matsumoto will continue Tarkovsky’s imagery and attempt to create a new fiction that reflects the post-Fukushima world. Toshiki Okada (chelfitsch) wrote “Current Location” after the 2011 disaster, taking a science fiction-like look at the shimmering of the spirit when faced with the invisible change and unease that comes to a community. Through these dramatic works I wish to consider again the power of fiction in theatre.

Throughout the ages, theatre has, along with myths and religious parables, inherited the role of telling the narratives necessary to the period and community via the medium of the play. All the plays of the Orient and Occident, from the Greek tragedies to modern drama and Japanese classics, together form a kind of “database of narratives” shared across time and area, which with their incredibly diverse forms and contexts were then applied as per the era or society. This wealth of plays today still stimulates the imagination of many artists, engendering new interpretations and interventions. The imagination of theatre continues and develops the expandability of narrative in pastiche. Numerous artists have taken on the gauntlet of considering this question, and for F/T13 two companies have been commissioned to create a respective work based on “Yotsuya Kaidan”, the narrative that has been handed down to us from the Edo age. The theatre company Kinoshita-Kabuki, led by Yuichi Kinoshita and which re-creates kabuki plays from a deep knowledge and interest in classic stage arts, will welcome Kunio Sugihara as director to present a contemporary ensemble version of Tsuruya Nanboku IV’s “Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan”. Shigeki Nakano has produced numerous dynamic adaptations of overseas drama and for F/T13 will collaborate with dramaturge Kaku Nagashima on the source text for “Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan”, the “Yotsuya Zotanshu”, installing three layers in the Edo (Tokyo) urban space: what actually happened as historical fact; the “narrative” that emerges from the “Yotsuya Zotanshu”; and the “fiction” newly created by Nakano himself. Intersecting the Edo-Tokyo space and numerous characters and figures, we will be able to experience a new parallel world. Shu Matsui (Sample) has also produced a catalogue of contemporary fables with idiosyncratic drama and characters, and for F/T13 he will pastiche the Greek tragedy “Oedipus” to create a narrative that cuts deep into the bioethical dilemmas that traverse fauna, flora and humanity.

On the other hand, the “grand narratives” that humanity has produced in modern society, such as history, the nation state and ideology, are fraught with a danger – that of cancelling out the anonymous “small narratives” that overflow from the flipside of the system or framework common to our lifestyles, thinking or community, from the people who are not classifiable in it. In an easy “grand narrative” can also be recovered the slogans that blanketed Japan after the 2011 disaster, and the political policies and growing tensions with neighboring countries over differences in historical perspective. At this time can theatre oppose this temptation and somehow re-weave specific narratives? As one approach to this inquiry, Rabih Mroué will present a series of three works from the Middle East and the vortex of the Arab Spring. A trio of stories – the suicide of a fictional artist-activist disenchanted with the Arab Spring; the life of Mroué’s brother, who was crippled in the Lebanese Civil War; the death of citizen journalists in the worsening Syrian civil war – are interwoven with sharp analysis of the social media representing the stories, presenting minute but acute perspectives on narrative and history. And following F/T12’s acclaimed Jelinek Series of “Kein Licht.” and “Kein Licht II” (“Fukushima – Epilog”), a new short theatre text, “Prolog?”, has arrived in 2013. Two artists have been commissioned to direct the first Japanese production of this text that raises further questions about the post-Fukushima world. Akio Miyazawa will attempt to weave the world of the dead with Jelinek’s language while drawing on the stage arts of Noh theatre. Meanwhile, Tsuyoshi Ozawa’s approach will be a visual artist’s one, creating an installation-performance that deals with Jelinek’s text visually. These two artists will take on the mantle of Jelinek’s language to confront the colossal post-Fukushima grand narrative and create a virtual world before our eyes. F/T13 will also introduce the work of Forced Entertainment, led by Tim Etchells, as another perspective on considering the act of “telling stories”. Just what is “telling stories”? And who has the right to tell stories? From this humorous performance of dislocations and digressions will emerge the possibilities and impossibilities of telling stories.

Latent powers to produce stories are hoarded in the city in which we live. Documentary theatre leaders Rimini Protokoll will extract 100 ordinary citizens from statistical data on the twenty-three wards of Tokyo and put them on stage, artfully tracing and visualizing the modes and mentalities of the people who live in the city of Tokyo. In Japan, Port B’s Akira Takayama has continued his work of creating an original OS for intersecting the social and the theatrical, and for F/T13 will create a “journey” whereby audiences will tour the communities of immigrants and exchange students who migrate to Tokyo from Asia for various reasons, listening to the stories and histories told there. The enormous personal stories and unconsciousness of the masses accumulated in the “Tokyo” in which we live will emerge via these theatrical devices. While immigrants from Asia are increasing, in Japan today we can also find discrimination and ostracism towards specific Asian communities. The work of re-grasping the “Inner Other” of Asia from the interface of history and the future is surely a most urgent task.

Further, the Emerging Artists Program, being held this year for the fourth time, will also confront this task, and will enhance its continued functionality as a platform for creativity and criticism in Asia. Younger talents from all over Asia will gather in Tokyo for encounters with unknown audiences and critique. From this, dialogue is born and mutual awareness of each other’s differences, which passes on a new creative dynamism to Asia. At the Emerging Artists Program, operated on the basis of this vision, the dialogue between the nine companies and artists for the 2013 program and the critics and audiences will strengthen the partnerships with other Asian festivals and theatre initiatives, aspiring to improve the quality of creativity and criticism in Asia.

This year will also see the establishment of the F/T Open Program. As the name suggests, the program sets out to open up the festival, and will intensively develop projects for a greater variety of people to enjoy and participate in the festival, based on affiliations with existing initiatives in regions, networks, and a range of cultural and commercial resources. Through the F/T Opening Event, which will announce the start of the festival, F/T Mob Special, which will involve the local community in the F/T spirit, and the F/T Flag Project brimming in the Ikebukuro district with the illustrations of Yuta Okamura as used as this year’s main visual, F/T will further infiltrate, awaken and play with the city. Artist Noboru Tsubaki will also create a giant sculptural installation as a symbol of the festival, sparking chemical reactions with the diverse narratives staged at F/T, and also enlivening the mood of the festival itself.

Through these endeavours, F/T13 will re-define its mission for what it has accumulated over the last five years. At present F/T has three goals: to be a festival creating and delivering new values; to be a festival as a site for encounters and dialogue with a variety of people; and to be a festival as a platform for Asia. At its roots it is a festival that commissions and produces its own performances, with its foundations the creation and presentation of stage works based on lasting relations of trust with artists. In this way we will hold a symposium as a site for more open debate about F/T’s core principles, and the praxis that derives from that. While drawing on historical and global contexts, we will re-comprehend the core philosophies of public arts policies that the festival is based on, and the freedom of expression and responsibility that they should guarantee. It is my hope that after such open discussion the festival may, along with the people who come together there, be able to start weaving the new stories and history that will continue in the future.