Musician taking instructions

[imomus]

It's hard work, putting a play together. We're working daily from 10am to 7pm, with an hour off for lunch. It's the closest I've had in years to a day job. But it's much more expressive than most day jobs. Yesterday we went through Scene 12 of Martin Crimp's Attempts on her Life about a dozen times. I sat with headphones, selecting music, while the actors did their collective call-and-response thing. I learned quickly that the music has to be very, very minimal. Simple drones work best, murky atmospherics which make a kind of sound broth into which you can drop the meat of the actors' speech.



After lunch comes the fun part; we play games, improvising scenes designed to enhance the cast's team spirit and help them improvise. First there are five 'tempos', and I'm asked to come up with pieces of music going from slow to fast, while the actors pace around the stage in that tempo. Then I'm free to find pieces of music which the actors are supposed to turn into improvised, wordless sketches. This is a bit like being a DJ, but instead of trying to make people 'dance', I'm making them dream up a whole scenario and play it out collectively. It's surprising to see what emerges: a piece by Cosmos (Sachiko M and Ami Yoshida) conjures a silent drama in which an anguished woman, apparently being interviewed by psychiatrists or employers, is surrounded and collapses, wriggling away under the 'wall' like a cockroach. Some birdsong (field recordings, plus the quiet section of Cornelius Cardew's 'Great Learning', plus me playing along on a real decoy flute) produces a sketch in which ghosts console a bedridden Italian who seems to have seen Henry Fuseli's nightmare horse, and is clutching his head in horror. I keep trying to make the music more tender, to avoid these aggressive scenarios, but it's hard. I suppose that, just as the quickest and cheapest way to create tension in a film is to have a character produce a gun, so the easiest way to generate a compelling narrative when you're five actors on stage is to have a group versus an individual, and introduce some kind of menacing dynamic. I doubt that Japanese actors would come up with these scenarios, though. I'm already missing the harmonious collective-mindedness of Eastern societies. The actors produce a parody of this when I play Towa Tei's 'Pitamaha Bamboo', making (with quite astonishingly co-ordinated choreography, apparently without watching each other's moves) a little cameo of a tea ceremony. It's all very Gilbert and Sullivan, very exoticist, their picture of doll-like hostesses bowing with tidy, flirty gestures. But it makes a change from 'individual threatened by group' or 'man A menacing man B with violence, while woman A quarrels nearby with woman B'.

After each sketch there's a hilarious Show and Tell session in which the actors explain the stories they were acting out, and how they interpreted the gestures other people were making. It often turns out that everybody's been working at complete cross-purposes. 'I was the midwife, trying to help you deliver your baby.' 'No, I was being a grandmother, on her deathbed!'

This is hard work, but it's a reminder of how wonderful structured, guided play can be. I often think that people get bored by traditional entertainments -- clubs, pubs, concerts -- because there isn't enough structure in the things you do there. You drink, you dance, you talk, and that's 'leisure'. Its formlessness and 'freedom' make it banal and dull. Play needs structure, and structure needs a temporary hierarchy: a director and a cast. Plus a musician, taking instructions, for a change.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

"Individual threatened by a group" - an excellent concise definition of Japanese society!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Let me guess, you're from the West, aren't you?

[(Anonymous)]

It intended as a slightly sly comment on ijime and the deru kugi.

If Japan is truly an egalitarian society why is there a need for scapegoats such as the Burakumin or Zainichi kankokujin, or for (unmentionable in the same breath) exalted living deity figures?

[(Anonymous)]

It may be time for a read of The Japan We Never Knew (http://www.isbn.nu/toc/0773729844) by David Suzuki and Keibo Oiwa - founder of Japan's Sloth Club - for a soul-searching but constructive discussion of all the things you're not supposed to talk about in polite conversation.

[johnnyshades.livejournal.com]

not all americans think that way, yikes!

and that's what four years of the worst political take on foreign policy will get you.

i want to see the world and enjoy it, as a tourist, an observer and not a pariah.

[(Anonymous)]

The origin of the word pariah is interesting. It comes from a South Indian Tamil word meaning "hereditary drum player" and refers to people who are low-caste or out-caste (not caste classifiable). In such countries with a highly organized social structure, perhaps especially Japan, you are an honoured guest as long as you are a tourist, from somewhere else. When it looks like you're there to stay you become a dishonourable ghost, or pariah, because you are outgroup, but no longer an honourable visitor from afar.

[w-e-quimby.livejournal.com]

Good point.

[nickink.livejournal.com]

But isn't the point made on the contrary ? That the 'harmonius collective-midedness of Eastern societies' would not produce such results ?

In the Korean context, I always feel wildly ambivalent about how this manifests itself, particularly in urban Seoul. On the one hand, there is this sense of brother and sisterhood which floats around and in between relationships of all kinds with the highly agreeable upshot of almost zero casual violence. However, (and this is where Korea might differ from Japan), it also breeds a demoralising conservatism and a disregard for subjectivism. "I've never thought about that" is a standard bewildered response to left of centre casual hypothesising of the kind found in any English pub on a Tuesday night when there's nothing good on telly.

I have to say though, I'm probably guilty of not analysing my own assumptions enough in all of this. The most frustrating thing of all about living here is the recurring nagging suspicion that I am far more blinkered by my own cultural upbringing than I had hoped.

One of the reasons I enjoy reading imomus' writing is that he seems to have struck a better balance in this regard.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Nick Ink, it's interesting to get a perspective from Korea. I think the Japanese counterbalance their 'conformity' (and it certainly exists -- one reason I find Japanese panel discussions or art magazines so boring is that nobody ever disagrees with anybody else, or gives anyone a bad review) with their 'eccentricity'. There is a huge respect in Japan for oddball, whacky and eccentric ideas, as long as they're not expressed aggressively or accompanied by bitterness towards society.

I have some Hong Kong Chinese friends on Friendster, and I'm amazed at how bland, cheerful, conservative and formulaic their Testimonials are. That seems to be what happens when you have collectivity without eccentricity.

I've been influenced in my take on this by Geert Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions (http://www.onepine.info/phof.htm) theory, which sees Individualism v. Collectivism as one of the world's four main cultural variants. The four factors Hofstede identifies are:

• Power distance, a measure of the inequality between bosses and inferiors, extent to which this is accepted
• Uncertainty Avoidance, the degree to which one is comfortable with ambiguous situations, can tolerate uncertainty
• Individualism v. Collectivism, degree to which one thinks in terms of 'I' versus 'we, either ties between individuals are loose or people are part of cohesive in group throughout their lifes
• Masculinity v Femininity. Also known as achievement- versus relationship- orientation - cultures high on masculinity rate achievement and success more than caring for others and the quality of life.

On these measures, the US is power distant (very unequal, and getting more so under Bush), unable to tolerate uncertainty (and getting more so under Bush), individualist (and getting more so under Bush) and masculine (and getting more so under Bush). Japan is almost completely the opposite.

[w-e-quimby.livejournal.com]

How is Europe (I'm sure that different countries have varying scale factors) in comparison?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

The flip answer is that we're somewhere in the middle: slightly commie, wishy-washy flip-flopping girlie men. Everything the Republicans are trying to stick on Kerry, in fact.

[w-e-quimby.livejournal.com]

Hahaha. Kerry seems so only because of Bush. Otherwise, I'd say that his politics are rather ambiguous.

[w-e-quimby.livejournal.com]

Also, that's assuming that Japan is essentially communist, when in my opinion, it is the capitalist center of the East.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Well, Kerry's ambiguity or 'flip flopping' puts him 100% 'left' on the 'Certainty / Uncertainty Tolerance' scale. Also, you have to make a distinction (and I didn't in my flip reply) between collectivism and communism. Japan is capitalist, but rather egalitarian (or 'superflat') in its social structure. The collectivist nature of Japanese society does allow for a communist metaphor to be applied: Kojin Karatani has called it 'a communist country with a capitalist economy'. What he means, I think, is that it's a collectivist country that stresses equality to quite a startling degree. It's still hard for me to tell the rich districts of Tokyo from the poor ones -- a lot harder, anyway, than it is in any Western city. People stress collective unity rather than personal status differences. Public facilities open to all are in good condition, private property is much less important than it is in the West, where its over-emphasis is, to some extent, based on necessity: public space is ugly, neglected and dangerous, so a 'gated' and owned private world becomes a needed retreat.

[nickink.livejournal.com]

Interesting stuff. Koreans certainly seem a lot less given to non-conformity as you describe it in Japan, and there is a startling lack of youth rebellion. Anything styled as such usually involves either

a ) blonde hair (ironically, the absolute epitome of conformity among modern Asian youth)

b ) punks (but very well-dressed , polite ones who sing songs about urging on the national football team)

c ) baggy hip-hop style designer label clothing.

Despite living here for six years, I have yet to find a single T-shirt with the rather beautiful Korean language on it, yet equally it's impossible to find one that is just plain logoless colour. I have also been thwarted left, right and centre in my quest for good contemporary music. While Japan has Susumu Yokota, Cornelius, Nobukazu Takemura , and probably a million other great artists in various genres, her I've come up empty-handed. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places !

It may seem a bit of a nerve to say so after all of this, but I do feel a strong affection for Korea for so many reasons not relevant to this discussion. My wife and daughter are Korean and I've learned a lot here. I always think I want to leave, but whenever I do, even on holiday, I feel instant pangs of longing for it.

[sarmoung.livejournal.com]

You'd be very welcome to my review copy of 'Japan at Play: The ludic and logic of power' (ed. Joy Hendry and Massimo Riveri, Routledge, 2002) which may have some pertinent examples about structured play in Japan. I don't feel too much of a need to read it again and think it may find a better home on your bookshelf.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Wow, cool, e mail me at

momus@t-online.de

[mariocanario.livejournal.com]

structure!yes. thanks for reminding how important that is ,in the perfect context. have you ever been to dr. pong?it's a bar in prenzlauer berg with a ping pong table and the bar and dj in a separate room. around 20-30 people spend there the whole night playing ping pong in this game where each player hits the ball once and the one who fails is out until there's only 2 and the best of 3 points wins. when you look at it from the outside it looks totally dumb, like a bunch of geeks with no life. but when you can get into it, it turns into an awesome experience full of nuances, a neverending choreographed dance with its highs and its lows. aw sorry i got carried away. cant wait to see the play though.

[sylvia101.livejournal.com]

i agree with your last paragraph, because i think sometimes people need structure in order to relax. being given an objective and motivation "you want to cross the street because your screaming child is on the other side" gets people out of their heads, causes them to act, or "play" in a way that can be very rejuvinating. in addition to building trust and the other things you mentioned about the actors.

i think there is a distinct difference between leisure and entertainment. entertainment is not always relaxing or nourishing in teh way that i want leisure to be. and leaisure is not lazy.

anyway, i ramble with banal observations. but i'll say that if people could play improvisation games all the time, i think they would be far less neurotic.

[(Anonymous)]

maybe its the neurotics that would call you neurotic, maybe I am already playing improvisation games because live IS a game,
but I may have chosen the wrong character..
off to school now, for the next rehearsal

Attempts On Her Life At Diorama London

[(Anonymous)]

Hey - there's a new production of Attempts On Her Life at the Diroama in London October - November: http://www.attemptsonherlife.com