These are the questions that strike me thinking about the show I saw last night (and will see another 4 times) The Other Here is an intriguing piece from Big Dance Theater, and surprisingly (almost to a fault) linear and easy to follow in terms of a narrative, I found myself craving more of a sense of mystery and the painful hollowness that Ibuse's writings suggest. The company wove together (rather too comfortably for my taste) two Ibuse short stories (The Carp and Life at Mr. Tange's) and found texts from a life insurance convention. The resulting tale about an aging insurance salesman, his servant, and a carp given to him by a now-deceased friend really begins nowhere and ends nowhere -- and i don't mean that in a bad way at all. Scenes from an insurance conference (complete with sporadic questions from the convention audience) and terse, often-incomplete dialogue between characters are interspersed with heartfelt Okinawan pop songs in quotes and dances that emerge and dissipate like the wind.
The ensemble of actor-dancers held the audience with sure, playful and trustworthy hands. Though there were many people in the audience who were perplexed by the piece's seeming to never land here or there, or anywhere at all -- I thought that that was where I could find magic and resonance the most: in the liminal spaces between between form and content, story and dance.
1 comment:
hmmmm... the other here... it's interesting that you thought that the narrative was easy to follow and linear. i thought it was sort of all cobbled together incoherently, making the whole thing quite inaccessible. i kept thinking, what time frame are we in (past? present? real? imagined? america? japan?)? what character is that girl supposed to be right now (servant? insurance agent? singer? dancer?)? it was all a bit tiresome to follow.
and i haven't had a chance to read Ibuse, and perhaps that would have helped- so i can't comment on how Big Dance Theatre did in interpreting his work (although i can guess that they didn't get to a deeper level/the essence of his work).
i wished it was edgier, interpreted it in another context, like in rural america maybe or in a big city. the costumes were too "traditional" which gave it an antiquated, outdated feel (a few japanese folks i spoke with after the show thought so as well).
the set however was quite stunning- the colors, the props, the movement. i think the moment i let go of trying to understand what was going on (which was very hard for me), i was able to take it all in visually, which was pleasurable.
And gosh, all the heavy, loaded existential questions you ask in the beginning of your entry... the performance really inspired none of those grand questions for me.
but it did make me laugh, esp the insurance convention host girl. she kicked ass!
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