Published in association with the International Federation of Theatre Research

Transcription

1 Studies in International Performance Published in association with the International Federation of Theatre Research General Editors: Janelle Reinelt and Brian Singleton Culture and performance cross borders constantly, and not just the borders that define nations. In this new series, scholars of performance produce interactions between and among nations and cultures as well as genres, identities and imaginations. International in the largest sense, the books collected in the Studies in International Performance series display a range of historical, theoretical and critical approaches to the panoply of performances that make up the global surround. The series embraces Culture which is institutional as well as improvised, underground or alternate, and treats Performance as either intercultural or transnational as well as intracultural within nations. Titles include: Khalid Amine and Marvin Carlson THE THEATRES OF MOROCCO, ALGERIA AND TUNISIA Performance Traditions of the Maghreb Patrick Anderson and Jisha Menon (editors) VIOLENCE PERFORMED Local Roots and Global Routes of Conflict Elaine Aston and Sue-Ellen Case STAGING INTERNATIONAL FEMINISMS Christopher Balme PACIFIC PERFORMANCES Theatricality and Cross-Cultural Encounter in the South Seas Matthew Isaac Cohen PERFORMING OTHERNESS Java and Bali on International Stages, Susan Leigh Foster (editor) WORLDING DANCE Helen Gilbert and Jacqueline Lo PERFORMANCE AND COSMOPOLITICS Cross-Cultural Transactions in Australasia Helena Grehan PERFORMANCE, ETHICS AND SPECTATORSHIP IN A GLOBAL AGE Judith Hamera DANCING COMMUNITIES Performance, Difference, and Connection in the Global City James Harding and Cindy Rosenthal (editors) THE RISE OF PERFORMANCE STUDIES Rethinking Richard Schecher s Broad Spectrum Silvija Jestrovic and Yana Meerzon (editors) PERFORMANCE, EXILE AND AMERICA Ola Johansson COMMUNITY THEATRE AND AIDS Ketu Katrak CONTEMPORARY INDIAN DANCE New Creative Choreography in India and the Diaspora

2 Sonja Arsham Kuftinec THEATRE, FACILITATION, AND NATION FORMATION IN THE BALKANS AND MIDDLE EAST Daphne P. Lei ALTERNATIVE CHINESE OPERA IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION Performing Zero Carol Martin (editor) THE DRAMATURGY OF THE REAL ON THE WORLD STAGE Y. Meerzon PERFORMING EXILE, PERFORMING SELF Drama, Theatre, Film Alan Read THEATRE, INTIMACY & ENGAGEMENT The Last Human Venue Shannon Steen RACIAL GEOMETRIES OF THE BLACK ATLANTIC, ASIAN PACIFIC AND AMERICAN THEATRE Marcus Tan ACOUSTIC INTERCULTURALISM Listening to Performance Joanne Tompkins UNSETTLING SPACE Contestations in Contemporary Australian Theatre Maurya Wickstrom PERFORMANCE IN THE BLOCKADES OF NEOLIBERALISM Thinking the Political Anew S. E. Wilmer NATIONAL THEATRES IN A CHANGING EUROPE Evan Darwin Winet INDONESIAN POSTCOLONIAL THEATRE Spectral Genealogies and Absent Faces Forthcoming titles: Adrian Kear THEATRE AND EVENT Studies in International Performance Series Standing Order ISBN (hardback) (paperback) (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England

3 Acoustic Interculturalism Listening to Performance Marcus Cheng Chye Tan

4 Marcus Cheng Chye Tan 2012 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tan, Marcus Cheng Chye. Acoustic interculturalism : listening to performance / Marcus Cheng Chye Tan. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN Intercultural communication in the performing arts. 2. Sounds Anthropological aspects. 3. Music in the theater. 4. Music Social aspects. 5. Performing arts Asia. I. Title. PN2039.T dc ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI /

5 Contents List of Figures Series Preface Acknowledgements vii ix xi Introduction: the Topography of an Acoustic Interculturalism 1 1 The Performativity of Sound and the Soundscapes of Culture 29 2 Acoustic Mimesis: Ethical Cadence and Sonic Violence in Tambours Sur La Digue 57 3 (Echo)Locating Other Shakespeares: an Aesthetics of Pop and the Ear of the Other 89 4 Listening in/to Asia: Ong Keng Sen s Desdemona and the Polyphonies of Asia If Music Be the Food of Love : Fourth World Universals in Ong Keng Sen s Awaking 165 Conclusion: After Authenticity: Naming the Intercultural 197 Notes 215 References 229 Index 245 v

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7 List of Figures 2.1 Ariane Mnouchkine s Tambours Sur La Digue (2002): Heroine Duan beats the chang go drums Musical score for The Windmills of Your Mind ( Les moulins de mon cœur ) from the movie The Thomas Crown Affair. Music composed by Michel Legrand and English lyrics written by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman Yukio Ninagawa s Twelfth Night (2009): Act 1 Scene 1, Orsino muses about music and love Ong Keng Sen s Desdemona (2000): Mona (played by Claire Wong) beside musician and music director Jang Jae Hyo during the p ansori sequence Ong Keng Sen s Awaking (2008): Musicians of the Globe (left), the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (right), the Northern Kunqu Theatre Opera troupe (front of platform), and Wei Chun Rong as Du Liniang (on platform) 171 vii

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9 Series Preface The Studies in International Performance series was initiated in 2004 on behalf of the International Federation for Theatre Research, by Janelle Reinelt and Brian Singleton, successive Presidents of the Federation. Their aim was, and still is, to call on performance scholars to expand their disciplinary horizons to include the comparative study of performances across national, cultural, social and political borders. This is necessary not only in order to avoid the homogenizing tendency of national paradigms in performance scholarship, but also in order to engage in creating new performance scholarship that takes account of and embraces the complexities of transnational cultural production, the new media, and the economic and social consequences of increasingly international forms of artistic expression. Comparative studies (especially when conceived across more than two terms) can value both the specifically local and the broadly conceived global forms of performance practices, histories and social formations. Comparative aesthetics can challenge the limitations of national orthodoxies of art criticism and current artistic knowledge. In formalizing the work of the Federation s members through rigorous and innovative scholarship this Series aims to make a significant contribution to an ever- changing project of knowledge creation. JANELLE REINELT AND BRIAN SINGLETON International Federation for Theatre Research Fédération Internationale pour la Recherche Théâtrale ix

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11 Acknowledgements This book represents the culmination of several years of thinking about the subject of interculturalism and the performativity of sound. More significantly, it stands as a testimony to the kindness and support of many people without which such an endeavour would not have been possible. My deepest gratitude goes most specially to Professor Brian Singleton who was not only a perceptive and patient academic advisor, but also an encouraging and supportive friend. His insights and experience have been invaluable in helping to shape much of this book. It is also with his strong encouragement and faith in my writing and critical abilities that this book could find a privileged place in his series co- edited with Professor Janelle Reinelt to whom I would also here like to extend my gratitude. I would also like to thank Professor Yong Li Lan for her many years of friendship and guidance. It was she who first stirred my interest in intercultural research; it was she who urged me to take a leap of faith in an area that was as much unexplored as it was daunting. I remain forever grateful to her for the years of intellectual nurturing and loving friendship. I also have many mentors who have lent a guiding hand and a listening ear to rants and aggravations, absurdities and lunacies in the course of research. For this, I would most like to thank Professor Dennis Kennedy whose erudite observations and wisdom on a wide variety of subject matter have allowed me to learn much in the course of the many conversations and lunch- time chats we have had. His kindness, generosity and friendship are some of the things I cherish dearly. I am also most grateful to Dr Rustom Bharucha whom I had the privilege of getting reacquainted with at a conference in Osaka. His views on interculturalism have undoubtedly shaped many of the critical perspectives found here. More importantly, I am most thankful for his kind words on life and living, and his hand of friendship. Another person to whom I would like to offer my sincerest gratitude is Dr KK Seet who not only helped obtain necessary research materials but whose steadfast friendship and optimistic view of life and learning have been a constant source of inspiration and encouragement. xi

12 xii Acknowledgements This final product is also the result of many insightful interjections and expert advice. For this I am most grateful to Dr Matthey Causey, Mr Donnacha Dennehy and Professor Christopher Balme. I would also like to thank Paula Kennedy, Benjamin Doyle and all at Palgrave Macmillan who have not only taken an interest in my work but also helped in making my ideas come alive in print, quite literally. Getting source materials for any research on theatre has always proven to be a challenging task. As such, I am extremely grateful to Dr Robin Loon, Dr Li Ruru, Professor Michiko Suematsu and Lau Yuan Zhi for expending valuable time and effort (not to mention money) in helping to obtain various production videos, performance reviews and other vital material. This book would not have been possible without their kindness and generosity. I am also indebted to TheatreWorks Singapore, Shochiku Grand Kabuki, the Japanese Actors Association and Théâtre du Soleil for granting permissions to reproduce production images. With regard to this, I would like to specifically thank Mr Tay Tong, Ms Mio Fujitani and Mr Franck Pendino for assisting with copyright permission matters. The beautiful cover artwork would not have been possible without the creative genius of Chin Yuanhong and Chong Jiajun, and the team at Darling Visual Communications. For their inspiring designs and unwavering dedication to this project of mine, I am thankful beyond words. Knowing the intrepid work of Darling would not have been possible without the recommendation of Dominic Chua, for whose friendship I am equally grateful. For help in resolving all technological and electronic troubles, my deepest gratitude goes to former student and present friend Wilson Tan whose expertise in these areas remains unparalleled. As friends who have lent a listening ear, and a shoulder to lean on, I would like to acknowledge Aoife McGrath, Emma Meehan, Hasim Hasan, Ng Seow Hwee, Betty Tiew, Clara Chow, Lau Yoke Ching, William Heng, Benjamin Xue and Andre Lee. Words cannot suffice in expressing my gratitude for the lengths they have gone to as friends. It leaves me finally to acknowledge the support given by my family. Their quiet presence has provided me with a nurturing home and a loving retreat.