Collaborating and Performing in Multiple Languages

Looking for Yogurt (The Poster Image)

Kijimuna International Theatre Festival for Children, Okinawa

Looking for Yogurt is a co –production between Birmingham Rep (England), Joyful Theatre (Korea) and The Kijimuna Festival (Japan). It is truly collaborative in that it features a performer from each country (each who performs in his/ her own language) and was written by a writer from each country, including Peter Wilson from the UK who also directed the piece.

The synopsis in the program reads: In a big construction site in a big city just before dusk, a Korean girl Norang encounters a Japanese boy Aka and an English boy Blue. These three children, who have no language nor culture in common somehow come to know, play with and understand each other and finally reach to hope and trust.

This was my first adventure into the world of cross -cultural collaborations and I was very excited to be in the audience. Naturally, the audience was mostly Japanese and therefore understood the dialogue of the Japanese performer only but through the characterisations, actions and reactions all three languages were made accessible. If anything, I wanted to see the three characters more challenged to be understood; this would not only have made the scenario more realistic but could also open up the possibility for beautiful comic misunderstandings. Instead the three characters seemed to get to know each other and understand each other too soon, seamlessly understanding what had been said and each translating it into their own language for the audience one by one. Hence the pattern of Korean then Japanese then English became a little predictable. Nevertheless, thanks to the audible response of the small number of children in the audience (recommended for those aged six +), there was no doubt that they were engaged throughout.

A note should be made here that many shows of the shows at the Kijimuna Festival unfortunately fail to attract an audience of children. Particularly anything that looks slightly experimental or contemporary. Instead, most of the audiences are made up of adults who have an interest in theatre (including a small number of international producers from Children's Festivals) and only a handful to half of the local audience escort their kids along.

Island Kitchen (produced by Mr Shimoyama, Artistic Director of the Kijimuna Festival) was a performance written and directed by Kato Tadashi and performed by one Japanese actor (in Japanese), one Korean actor (in Korean), a dancer and a musician. However, it suffered from the opposite of Looking for Yogurt, it did not go far enough to ensuring that the dialogue of the Korean actor was not lost on its Japanese audience. Instead we listened to long energetic monologues and had no idea what he was getting so worked up about. It was a very wordy play and even my thirty year old Japanese friend in the audience commented afterwards, that he found the story hard to follow. Recommended for an audience of children aged nine upwards, I can only assume that the meaning was completely lost on the few children that were in the audience.

Who are you? A production by Theatre Mala Scena from Croatia who are better known for their show, The Parachutists, featured a Japanese actress (who has been living in Croatia) and a Croatian actress. The program reads:Two women seeking for some new friend meet, talk, laugh and go while involving the audience. As speedy stage performed in Japanese.

The best thing about this collaboration was the gentle performance style of the two performers, which allowed for a genuine connection with one another and a sharing of basic language. And whilst the small audience mostly of adults and a few children aged 3-6 years sat quietly watching the performance from beginning to end, it lacked energy, theatricality and often integrity- particularly the extended game of hide and seek which was badly blocked throughout the piece (one actor pretending to look for the other that is clearly just a little further upstage). It occurred to me while watching this piece that it would not survive a showing at a kindergarten, where the children, on mass, yell out the obvious “She’s behind you!!” and any other suggestions they have along the way.