The influence of Oriental theatrical techniques on the theory and practice of Western drama

Abstract

The impact of Oriental theatrical techniques on Western theatre through three forms---the No, Balinese and Chinese theatres---has been powerful and interesting in many different ways. Some of the most significant Western directors---Brecht, Artaud and Copeau---have based their influential theories on Eastern theatres: Brecht's new Chinese-inspired "Verfreodungseffekte"; Artaud's Balinese-derived "Theatre-of-Cruelty" and Copeau's No-inspired "Theory of Dramatlc Economy. The No has also inspired Yeats's plays. Among other Western playwrights who have been so influenced are Bond and Beckett. I received support for this view from a celebrated Japanese No actor who had taken part in Waiting for Godot: my interview with him forms part of the thesis. And the current work of Peter Brook offers a new Western theatrical style inspired by Eastern techniques.

However, East-West theatrical contacts have also produced some ironies stemming from misunderstandings of original forms: Brecht associated his V-effect with Chinese theatre, which is really closer to the "dramatic" form he rebelled against; in spite of Artaud's own preoccupation with technique rather than meaning, his theatre of spectacle and action works best together with, rather than against, meaning and text. Takahime -an inferior Japanese version of one of Yeats's originally No-inspired plays- reflects the adverse effects of Western influence on an Eastern model.

Nevertheless, in spite of misunderstandings, not only have revolutionary theories, techniques, and dramatic forms, arisen from East-West theatrical contacts, but a whole new Western outlook has been established.

I have included in the thesis some visual-aids and a sound-tape, essential in examining the physical elements of Oriental theatre.

Much of my argument depends on understanding Zeami's 15th C treatise on No acting- Kakyo - which has not been available in English. I include in the thesis a partial translation of it which I prepared in collaboration with Patrick O'Neill and Chifumi Shimazaki.