Tadashi Suzuki: “The Word is an Act of the Body”

interview TADASHI SUZUKI "The Word is an Act of the Body" This interview took place on October 15, 1981, and was conducted by William 0. Beeman. Acknowledgement Is gratefully made to Mr. Kosho Kadogami for his translation. How did you come to your present adaptation ofAsian theatrical modes for the experimental stage? When I was a student at Waseda University I organized a small performance group performing realistic theatre based on the Stanislavski system, but usIng realistic styles of performance made It Impossible to accommodate the entire range of human experience. I could only show the surface. I eventually began producing plays by my friend, Minoru Betsuyaku. The first was 88 called Zo (Elephant) and was inspired by Beckett and lonesco. Of course this was also basically based on Western theatrical styles. After separating from Betsuyaku, I began to realize that classical Japanese theatre offered the greatest range of possibilities for expression. What do you consider the most central element in Japanese theatre for the experimental stage? The most important point is a sense of corpus-the relationship between the word and the body. There is no kind of friction between the word and the body, but as Merleau-Ponty pointed out, the word is an act of the body. The classical Japanese theatre shows us that the word is a kind of gesture, and thus I have been working in this mode. Japanese words, all of them, involve this sense of body-they are very physiological, very close to the Japanese sense of corpus. What about the relationship of director to the text. In the past you have taken texts and altered them considerably to suit the performance. If the performance contains the essence of the original text, this is valid theatrical activity. In the rehearsal process the text, no matter what it is, is always altered. This alteration of the text is a natural process. The text is also changed by the actor's essence. If the actor changes, the text is also altered. If we consider the Kabuki texts of Nanboku we worked with we see that Nanboku wrote each text for a particular actor, thus each text is a kind of documentation of the abilities of an individual. Naturally when someone else plays this role, the text is altered. In Japanese classic theatre there is a very special relationship between actor and director. Does this relationship carry over into your work in experimental theatre? In Japan, in order for the actors to appear attractive on stage, directors and writers must do their work. In Japan the director and the writer serve the actor . The director is also responsible for bringing out that latent power that resides below the surface In an actor-something that the actor himself may not even be aware of. In the Kabuki of Nanboku's time, the actors were in a very real sense shamans. Their bodies were infused spiritually during the acting process. Today's actors do not have the kind of ability which allows them to become possessed during the acting process. In order to restore this kind of mystical shamanistic sense to the acting process, I have devised numerous physical exercises which help to restore magical power to the actor. The "modern" theatre began to develop at the point when the shamans began to give up their special powers. The further one retreats from this, the more the original power of the theatre is lost. Are their any directors abroad who seem to share some of your philosophy? I have been called "The Japanese Grotowski" In Paris, but really, my work is 89 ON THE DRAMATIC PASSIONS much different than his. Grotowski has abandoned the "word" to too great an extent. I have been working within a Japanese frame to revitalize the Japanese word and help actors to take the word into the body. Grotowski's drive to encourage independence of the body without the word is far too narrow In the end. I contain the word within the body. in this way there is a correspondence between the two. 90 Does this apply to Shull Terayama's work as well? Terayama's work Is completely different. For one...