Tadashi Suzuki - Culture is the Body: The Theatre Writings of Tadashi Suzuki

Translation copyright 2015 by Kameron H. Steele

The essays were originally published in Japan and copyright by Tadashi Suzuki

Culture Is the Body: The Theatre Writings of Tadashi Suzuki is published by Theatre Communications Group, Inc., 520 Eighth Avenue, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10018-4156

All Rights Reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio or television reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Excerpts from Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, copyright 1954 by Grove Press, Inc., copyright renewed 1982 by Samuel Beckett. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

Excerpts from Electra by Sophocles translated by Marianne McDonald and J. Michael Walton, copyright 2004. Used by permission of Nick Hern Books, Ltd.

This publication is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

TCG books are exclusively distributed to the book trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Suzuki, Tadashi, 1939-

Culture is the body: the theatre writings of Tadashi Suzuki / translated by Kameron H. Steele.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-55936-807-0 (ebook)

1. TheaterPhilosophy. 2. Acting. 3. DramaHistory and criticism.

I. Steele, Kameron H., translator. II. Title.

PN2039.S93 2015

792.01dc23 2015016793

Frontis: Tadashi Suzuki writing on the second floor of the original SCOT house.

Cover, text design and composition by Lisa Govan, Eliad Design

First TCG Edition, June 2015

In memory of

Ikuko Sait

(19412012)

CONTENTS

Culture Is the Body would not have been possible without the enthusiasm and tenacity of the late Ikuko Sait, the remarkable managing director of SCOT who looked after Suzuki and the company for forty-seven years. While sadly she is not with us to finally see its publication, she is deeply present in the language and spirit of its pages.

Along with Ikuko Sait, a number of individuals and organizations have contributed to the development of Culture Is the Body over the past twenty-five years. They are: Hiroko Suzuki, Yoshie Shigemasa & SCOT; Robert Wilson & the Watermill Center; Ivana Catanese & the South Wing; Maria Bacardi; Theodoros Terzopoulos; Ratan Thiyam; AlaSur; Ian Gu & STA; Yupin Rin & TNUA; Cheekeng Lee; Mattia Sebastian; Vesta Grabstaite; Jon Brokering; Maya Kobahidze; Anne-Lise Gabold; Ellen Lauren, Will Bond, Anne Bogart & SITI; David Eppel, Christopher Bolton, Amy Holzapfel & Williams College; Frank Hentschker, Samuel Leiter & CUNY; Arco Renz & Kobalt Works; Yoko Shioya & Japan Society; John Gillespie; J. Thomas Rimer; Ian Carruthers; Robert Draffin; Takeyoshi Yamamura; Takayuki Kan; Shji Ishizawa; Moira Brennan; Andy Horowitz; Philippa Wehle; Robert Brustein; Dwight Conquergood, Martha Lavey, Paul Edwards, Frank Galati & Northwestern University; Richard Emmert & Waseda University; Vilma Rpulo, Marcela Montero & UNCuyo; Travis Preston, Rafael Lopez-Barrantes, Mona Heinze, Lewis Klahr & CalArts; Ral Padilla, Ines Somellera & UDG; Eric Hill & Stagewest; Michael Maegher; Frederick R. Brown, Iwatachi Ryosaku & family; Tim Johnson & family; Isadora, Oriana, Susan, Brenton & Kevin Steele; Glynn Pruce & Florence Sturgeon.

The Limit of the Actor Approaching Zero

In analytic geometry, an asymptotic limit approaching zero refers to the convergence of a curve and a straight line, or asymptote. The critical feature of this mathematical concept is that the distance between the curve and its asymptote approaches zero as they move along the graph of a function to infinity. In other words, the curve and the line grow incrementally closer to each other, but never meet.

The fundamental theory behind Tadashi Suzukis praxis is a working hypothesis for applying this concept to art. If zero signifies perfection, then the limit represents how the artist persistently advances toward that perfection, knowing it will never be attained. The limit of the actor approaching zero thus describes the ceaseless quest for ways to realize, however miniscule, the ever-elusive state of absolute freedom in performance.

For Suzuki, this quixotic notion of striving to achieve an impossible goal correlates to the inherent, almost maniacal tenacity required to be an artist. In practice, this means cultivating an awareness of the gap between the ideal self and the actual self, identifying the obstacles to closing that gap and experimenting with ways to overcome them. As each individual obstacle is overcome, a new one must be discovered to replace it. It is this incessant search for obstacles and willful engagement of the challenges they present that allows us to evolve as artistsand as human beings. Go toward the difficulty: This is the central mantra of Suzukis ethic. As such, Suzukis theoretical writing is not merely a response to theatrical concerns, but an epistle for living in the twenty-first century. Behind his plea to vigorously identify and overcome obstacles is an imperative to focus on process, not product: a manifesto imploring us to change the paradigm of our lives, to live not in the solution, but in the problem; not in the answer, but in the question.

Living in the Answer

To some, these ideas will no doubt seem impractical. Why make infinite, Sisyphean efforts to achieve the impossible? Common sense tells us that for x effort we should expect y result, etc. Yet such cause-and-effect logic forces us to think and behave within set social and political boundaries. Instead of living as a curve approaching a line, many of us choose to exist as a flat line at a set distance from our ideals. Perhaps the influence of rampant global consumerism and its concomitant materialism has cajoled us into assessing our actions simply in terms of final product or outcome. Whatever efforts we make in life, a constant evaluation based on pre-determined criteria follows usbe it grades in school, the value of our investment portfolio or the effectiveness of domestic behavior adjustments at the advice of marriage counselors. The only result we can be sure of in life is death... all the rest is changeable and capable of surprising us. Yet somehow materialism has brought about a kind of machinelike fatalism which dictates almost every aspect of contemporary daily life, so that we dwell within narrow, predictable parameters, with decreasing room to imagine a world divergent from the one advertised to us. The role of the artist in society must be, rather, to give people an opportunity to perceive the world anew, to stimulate their imagination so they may live in the question. Thus, artists can encourage the greater society to liberate itself from the product-based mindset by generating new dialogue and creatively engaging conflict.