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The Japanese-Garden Aesthetics of Robert Lepage: Shukukei, Mitate, and Fusuma-e in Seven Streams of the River Ota and Other Works

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2013

MAI KANZAKI  and
JENNIFER WISE
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Abstract

This article demonstrates the existence of a strong aesthetic kinship between the mise en scène of Robert Lepage and the representational mode of the classical Japanese rock garden. In order to elicit the creative participation of an active spectator, both use such Zen techniques as a radical reduction of scale, or shukukei (miniature landscape); minimalistic material metaphors, or mitate (metaphoric representation); and an asymmetrical, fragmented style, or fusuma-e (fragmented scene). Drawing on the theory and practice of Japanese rock gardening, this article introduces a new critical vocabulary for describing the representational logic, and enlightening effects, of Lepage's approach to ‘setting up stones’ on the stage in Seven Streams of the River Ota and other works.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , October 2013 , pp. 196 - 213
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 2013 

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References

NOTES

1 Lepage, Robert and Eyre, Richard, ‘Robert Lepage in Discussion’, in Huxley, Michael and Witts, Noel, eds., The Twentieth-Century Performance Reader (London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 237–47, here p. 240Google Scholar.

2 Ibid., pp. 238–41.

3 Ibid., p. 238.

4 Keene, Donald, ‘Japanese Aesthetics’, in Hume, Nancy G., ed., Japanese Aesthetics and Culture: A Reader (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), pp. 27–41, here p. 34Google Scholar.

5 Nakagawara, Camelia, ‘The Japanese Garden of the Mind: The “Bliss” of Paradise Transcended’, Stanford Journal of East Asian Affairs, 14, 2 (2004), pp. 83–102, here p. 96Google Scholar.

6 Each of these terms, drawn from the language of Zen garden and temple design but here applied to the art of theatrical mise en scène, will be carefully defined shortly.

7 Quoted by Charest, Rémy, Robert Lepage: Connecting Flights (Toronto: A.A. Knopf Canada, 1998), p. 40Google Scholar.

8 Ibid., pp. 40–1. The similarity between theatrical stages and Zen gardens as meditative spaces has also been grasped by Robert Wilson, who has likened the effect of his mise en scène to that of a Japanese garden, which invites the audience's contemplation by its elaborate arrangement. Quoted by Lee, Sang-Kyong, Nichibei engeki no deai, trans. Tanaka, Tokuichi (Tokyo: Shindokushosha, 2004), pp. 260–1Google Scholar.

9 Personal site visit to La Caserne and research residency at the Ex Machina archives, 10 July–12 August 2008.

10 See Camelia Nakagawara's definition of stone gardening as ‘a sort of playful mimesis’, or ‘ludic mimesis’. Nakagawara, ‘The Japanese Garden of the Mind’, p. 85. The role of ‘play’ and ‘playfulness’ in Lepage's theatre has been widely discussed: see, for example, Sarah Hemming, ‘Conjuring Act’, The Independent, 30 October 1999, p. 5; Lepage and Eyre, ‘Robert Lepage in Discussion’, p. 241; and Dundjerović, Aleksandar Saša, The Theatricality of Robert Lepage (Montreal: McGill- Queen's University Press, 2007), p. 86Google Scholar.

11 Goto, Seiko, The Japanese Garden: Gateway to the Human Spirit (New York: P. Lang, 2003), p. 101Google Scholar.

12 Nakagawara, ‘The Japanese Garden of the Mind’, p. 85.

13 Ueda, Atsushi, Nihonjin to Sumai: The Inner Harmony of the Japanese House (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1990), pp. 161–2Google Scholar, quoted in Nakagawara, ‘The Japanese Garden of the Mind’, p. 85.

14 Nakagawara, ‘The Japanese Garden of the Mind’, p. 87.

15 Lepage, Robert and Machina, Ex, The Seven Streams of the River Ota (London: Methuen Drama, 1996), p. 1Google Scholar.

16 Ibid., p. 139.

17 Ueda, Nihonjin to Sumai, p. 161–2.

18 Takei, Jiro and Keane, Marc P., Sakuteiki: Visions of the Japanese Garden: A Modern Translation of Japan's Gardening Classic (Tokyo: Turtle, 2008), p. 151Google Scholar.

19 Nakagawara, ‘The Japanese Garden of the Mind’, p. 95.

20 Ono, Kenkichi, Iwanami teien jiten (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 2004), pp. 165–6Google Scholar.

21 Nakagawara, ‘The Japanese Garden of the Mind’, p. 95.

22 Fricker, Karen, ‘Introduction’, in Lepage, Robert and Machina, Ex, The Seven Streams of the River Ota (London: Methuen Drama, 1996), pp. v–vii, here p. vGoogle Scholar.

23 Lepage and Ex Machina, The Seven Streams of the River Ota, p. 1.

24 Goto, The Japanese Garden, pp. 87, 105.

25 Nakagawara, ‘The Japanese Garden of the Mind’, pp. 94, 102.

26 See Kyohei Sibano's discussion of Eisai's Kozengokokuron (twelfth century) for analysis of the binary-transcending journey of Zen enlightenment. Sibano, Kyohei, Rinzaizen Sosho 1: Daruma (Osaka: Toho Shuppan, 1941), p. 8Google Scholar. Dogen's notion of enlightenment as recorded in Shobogenzo (thirteenth century) involves transcending not only the binaries of self/other and mind/body, but also even the temporal binary of before/after enlightenment. See Dogen, , The Heart of Dogen's Shobogenzo, trans. Waddell, Norman and Abe, Masao (New York: State University of New York Press, 2002), p. 41Google Scholar. Dennis McCort likens Zen's overcoming of binary thinking to post-structuralism: McCort, Dennis, Going beyond the Pairs: The Coincidence of Opposites in German Romanticism, Zen, and Deconstruction (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001)Google Scholar.

27 Nitschke, Günter, Japanese Gardens: Right Angle and Natural Form (Cologne: Taschen, 1999), p. 238Google Scholar.

28 Hida, Norio, Nihon teien to fukei (Tokyo: Gakugei Shuppansha, 1999), p. 208Google Scholar.

29 Nakao, Mari, Eikokushiki teien (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1999), p. 21Google Scholar.

30 ‘Progress and Harmony for Mankind’ was the motto of Expo ‘70, held in Osaka.

31 Quoted in Dundjerović, The Theatricality of Robert Lepage, p. 70.

32 Ibid., p. 10.

33 Ludovic Fouquet also notes Lepage's recurrent use of small, clearly delimiting spaces, and also finds the device reminiscent of Japanese art, but instead of sekitei he references the toko no ma, the alcove. See Fouquet, Ludovic, Robert Lepage, l'horizon en images (Québec: L'instant même, 2005), pp. 323, 301–2Google Scholar. Fouquet also discusses Lepage's rectangular enframement of actors, but always in terms of its cinematic inspiration and effects. See ibid., pp. 75, 130, 138–9, 144, 147–8.

34 Poulton, Cody, ‘Today's Japan in Toronto: A Report’, Asian Theatre Journal, 13, 2 (1996), pp. 192–217, here p. 213CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 Jarrett, David, The English Landscape Garden (London: Academy Editions, 1978), p. 13Google Scholar.

36 Nakagawara, ‘The Japanese Garden of the Mind’, p. 96, our italics.

37 Water is classed as a yin element, and the pulverized rock (gravel) used to represent it is yang. See ibid., p. 96.

38 Ibid., p. 95.

39 Lepage and Eyre, ‘Robert Lepage in Discussion’, p. 241.

40 Ibid., p. 241.

41 Ibid., p. 242.

42 Quoted by Dundjerović, The Theatricality of Robert Lepage, p. 24.

43 Lepage and Eyre, ‘Robert Lepage in Discussion’, p. 244.

44 Nitschke, Japanese Gardens, p. 238.

45 In Zulu Time, according to Karen Fricker, Lepage's use of the Zulu-time alphabet functions similarly, as ‘une métaphore de l'oppression culturelle et des inequités du pouvoir’. See Fricker, Karen, ‘A l'heure zéro de la culture (dés)unie. Problèmes de représentation dans Zulu time de Robert Lepage et Ex Machina’, trans. Rémy Charest, Globe: Revue internationale d'études québécoises, 11, 2 (2008), pp. 81–116, here p. 100CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46 Nakagawara, ‘The Japanese Garden of the Mind’, pp. 85, 96.

47 Fricker and Fouquet find many examples of objects used in this poetic and metaphorical way. See Fricker, ‘A l'heure zéro’, p. 104, and Fouquet, Robert Lepage, pp. 24, 141–2, 301–8.

48 Sometimes transliterated as husuma-e.

49 Goto, The Japanese Garden, p. 104.

50 Ibid., p. 105.

51 Ibid., p. 105.

52 Nakagawara, ‘The Japanese Garden of the Mind’, pp. 94, 102, 88–90.

53 Ibid., p. 89.

54 Ibid., p. 90.

55 Hoover, Thomas, Zen Culture (New York: Random House, 1977), p. 9Google Scholar.

56 Thacker, Christopher, The History of Gardens (London: C. Helm, 1979), p. 144Google Scholar.

57 Mishima, Yukio, Inoue, Yasushi and Osaragi, Jiro, Owaranai niwa: Showa no sandai sakka to meguru kyutei no niwa (Kyoto: Tankosha, 2007), p. 42Google Scholar.

58 Hornby, Richard, ‘Hiroshima et l'amour’, Hudson Review, 50, 1 (1997), pp. 122–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here p. 123, available at www.jstor.org/stable/3852407, accessed 11 November 2012.

59 For discussion of the many ambiguities of this image and its reproduction see Sato, Yasuhiro, Yuna-zu: A Drama of Eyes (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1993)Google Scholar.

60 Twenty years elapse between Acts I and II, twenty between Acts II and III, one year between Acts III and IV (and back to 1943); then we go back by sixteen years for Act V, then forward by twenty-five years for Act VI, and forward again by two years for Act VII.

61 Quoted by Dundjerović, The Theatricality of Robert Lepage, p. 130.

62 Brassard as quoted in ibid., p. 145.

63 Benjamin Knapton's documentation of rehearsals for Lipsynch reveals the same creative process. See Benjamin Knapton, ‘Activating Simultaneity in Performance: Exploring Robert Lepage's Working Principles in the Making of Gaijin’, Queensland University of Technology Master's thesis, 2008.

64 Dundjerović, The Theatricality of Robert Lepage, pp. 77, 145, 133–4.

65 Ibid., pp. 133, 125.

66 Ibid., p. 146.

67 Ibid., p. 146.

68 Ibid., p. 149.

69 Blankenship quoted in Dundjerović, The Theatricality of Robert Lepage, p. 149.

70 Ibid., pp. 123–4. Fricker discusses the use of audience feedback in the creation of Zulu Time, 1998–2002. See Fricker, ‘A l'heure zéro’, pp. 95–100.

71 For additional evidence of Lepage's fragmentary approach to narrative see Bunzli, James, ‘The Geography of Creation: Décalage as Impulse, Process, and Outcome in the Theatre of Robert Lepage’, TDR: The Drama Review, 43 (1999), pp. 79–103CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here p. 91; also Dundjerović, The Theatricality of Robert Lepage, p. 83; Fricker, ‘A l'heure zéro’, pp. 97–9, and Fouquet, Robert Lepage, p. 319.

72 Paul Taylor, ‘Now you see it, now you don't’, The Independent, 17 August 1994, available at www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre–now-you-see-it-now-you-dont-paul-taylor-on-robert-lepages-the-seven-streams-of-the-river-ota-at-the-edinburgh-festival-1376974.html, accessed 17 November 2012.

73 See Lepage's discussion with Robert Everett-Green of the process that will culminate in the complete Playing Cards tetralogy. See Robert Everett-Green, ‘In Robert Lepage's Spades, All the World's a Small Stage’, Globe and Mail, 12 June 2012, available at www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/theatre-and-performance/in-robert-lepages-spades-all-the-worlds-a-small-stage/article4253591, accessed 1 May 2013.

74 Ian Shuttleworth criticized Seven Streams for its lack of narrative ‘focus’; New York Times critic Charles Isherwood failed to discern the unified story of Lipsynch, and Pat Donnelly of The Gazette wrote that it ‘lack[s] the connective power of plot’. See Carson, Christie, ‘From The Dragons’ Trilogy to The Seven Streams of the River Ota: The Intercultural Experiments of Robert Lepage’, in Joseph I. Donohoe Jr. and Koustas, Jane M., eds., Theater sans Frontières: Essays on the Dramatic Universe of Robert Lepage (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2000), pp. 43–77Google Scholar, here pp. 71–2; Charles Isherwood, ‘Voices Carry across the Lifetimes in a Journey with Nine Stops’, New York Times, 5 October 2009, available at http://theater.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/theater/reviews/05lipsynch.html, accessed 2 May; Pat Donnelly, ‘Lepage's 9-Hour Lipsynch an Entertaining, Powerful Statement’, The Gazette, 1 March 2010, available at http://lacaserne.net/index2.php/reviews/lipsynch/review_lepages_9-hour_lipsynch_an_entertaining_powerful_statement.

75 Carson, ‘From The Dragons’ Trilogy to The Seven Streams of the River Ota’, p. 44.

76 Nakagawara, ‘The Japanese Garden of the Mind’, p. 98.

77 Hoover, Zen Culture, p. 5.

78 Keene, ‘Japanese Aesthetics’, p. 34.

79 Yanagi, Soetsu, The Unknown Craftsman: A Japanese Insight into Beauty (Tokyo: Kodanshiya International, 1972, 1989), p. 124Google Scholar. Yanagi is here speaking about the Zen art of the tea service, but the idea applies equally to Zen gardening.

80 Nakagawara, ‘The Japanese Garden of the Mind’, p. 96.

81 Lepage and Eyre, ‘Robert Lepage in Discussion’, p. 242.

82 Goto, The Japanese Garden, pp. 101, 104.