Voyage © Em Valette
An unprecedented atmosphere of opaque uncertainty surrounds us. If you try to dismiss it, or paralyse your mind, it stays with you like a second skin of anxiety and fear. You may feign unconcern, but you cannot stay disaffected for long, nor write it off as someone else's problem or a distant event beyond the television screen.
More people than you can possibly imagine are encountering a sense of crisis, struggling to find some way to come to terms with this condition. Some would speak of "an inexplicable helplessness", others of "a decay of intelligence". But no matter how thoughtfully the phrase is chosen, words fail us.
Under these circumstances, what could be more ridiculous than innocent "art activities"? Time and again we need to ask ourselves why we are still trying to express ourselves through the performing arts and why we should continue with our creative productions?
At times like this, we remember the words of Pina Bausch - something she once said about "a Turkish man whose aged mother always told him "Don't cry, sing!"
We have chosen not to verbalize or otherwise comment upon the circumstances that currently encompass us. We hope to reclaim true communication without relying on any verbal pretexts. But is performance a true substitute for such mutual resonance? Once again, we find ourselves questioning the very essence of performance.
dumb type, April 2002
Conception, creation
dumb type
Creative members
Takayuki Fujimoto, Manna Fujiwara,Yuko Hirai, Ryoji Ikeda, Takao Kawaguchi, Seiko Ouchi
Hidekazu Maeda, So Ozaki, Noriko Sunayama, Shiro Takatani, Yoko Takatani
Mayumi Tanaka, Hiromasa Tomari, Misako Yabuuchi, Ichiro Awazu
performers:
Manna Fujiwara, Yuko Hirai, Takao Kawaguchi, Hidekazu Maeda, Seiko Ouchi, Noriko Sunayama
Mayumi Tanaka, Misako Yabuuchi, So Ozaki
Visual creation
Shiro Takatani
Takayuki Fujimoto
Hiromasa Tomari
Sound creation
Ryoji Ikeda
Stage Manager
So Ozaki
Video Assistant
Ichiro Awazu
Sound operator
Yoshihisa Fukuhara
Company Manager
Yoko Takatani
Acknowledgement
Noriko Kitamura (costume)
Production dumb type
Production, touring
Epidemic
In co-production with the Centre de Développement Chorégraphique de Toulouse; Theater Drama City, Osaka; Le-Maillon Théâtre de Strasbourg; Maison des Arts, Créteil; REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney / CalArts Theater), Los Angeles with the support of Kyoto Art Center and Biwako Hall, Shiga
