Oida Returns to NYC with INTERROGATIONS, 10/8

Appearing for the first time in New York City in 12 years, revered actor Yoshi Oida returns to the Japan Society stage in his solo tour de force, Interrogations: Words of the Zen Masters. This two-night-only limited engagement plays Friday, October 8 and Saturday, October 9, 7:30 pm, at Japan Society.
 
Interrogations is a comedic work depicting a test given by a Zen master to one of his students. The student must answer a series of questions framed in koans (riddles that defy rational thought) correctly in order to "graduate" (e.g. "How does a man who has climbed to the top of a pole go farther?"). The test continues for several days, designed to determine if the student has reached enlightenment.
 
Since its premiere in 1979 at the Avignon Festival, this one-man play with live musical accompaniment - "part theater, part music, part movement and all religious philosophy," as described by John Rockwell in The New York Times - has been hailed as Oida's masterwork. It has been performed worldwide and re-staged numerous times, with recent stops this summer in Padua (Italy), Ossiach (Austria) and Barcelona (Spain). Oida's uproarious performance is accompanied live by Berlin-based experimental musician Dieter Tru?stedt.
 
Notes Oida of the play, "During the performance of Interrogations, I ask the audience questions from the koans. In this case, there is no spiritual or philosophical objective, only an entertainment based on the gap between word and thought. As in the writings of Beckett or Ionesco. Obviously, there is no need for anyone to find the 'right' answer, but the questions act as a thread linking the audience with the two performers. Together we move towards a moment of shared delight, towards a living theater."
 
Trained from early childhood in the traditional kyogen acting style of the Japanese noh theater, actor, director, teacher and writer Yoshi Oida is widely recognized for his 30-year collaboration with legendary British director Peter Brook. In 1968 Oida appeared in Brook's production of Shakespeare's The Tempest at The Roundhouse in London. Further collaborations included The Mahabharata (on stage in 1985 and film in 1988) and Conference of Birds and The Man Who... Oida's work as part of Brook's Paris-based Centre Internationale de Création Théâtrale led to appearances around the world. Brook observed Oida's gifts as an actor stating, "Yoshi Oida shows how the mysteries and secrets of performance are inseparable from a precise, concrete and detailed science learned in the heat of experience. The vital lessons he passes on to us are told with such lightness and grace that typically the difficulties become invisible."
 
Discussing his style of theater Oida wrote, "I feel that there are two types of theatre. First, the circus. The Players are fantastic, acrobatic creatures employing all manner of effects. And then there is the type of theatre which is like a bus transporting the audience to a realm of their own imagination which they would not reach otherwise. That's the sort of theatre I do. A theatre of service."
 
Oida has written three seminal books on the art of the actor that have been translated into eight languages: An Actor Adrift, The Invisible Actor and An Actor's Tricks. Oida has also appeared in films including Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection The Pillow Talk (1996) directed by Peter Greenaway. In recent years, Oida has garnered international acclaim as a director of opera. In that role, his credits include productions at the National Theatre Prague (Czech Republic), Opéra de Rouen, Festival d'Aix-En-Provence and Opéra National de Lyon (France), Teatro Comunale di Bologna (Italy) and the Aldeburgh Festival (U.K.), to name a few. Among Oida's many honors, he was named Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France (1992) and Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France (2007). Japan Society presented the Oida-directed Benjamin Britten's opera Curlew River in 2007 as part of the Society's 100th Anniversary. More at www.yoshioida.com.
 
Interrogations is presented in conjunction with the exhibition, The Sound of One Hand: Paintings and Calligraphy by Zen Master Hakuin, at Japan Society Gallery, October 1-January 9. Additional information on the Zen-related programs in the Here & Zen Series is listed below.
 
Since the inception of the Performing Arts Program in 1953, Japan Society has introduced more than 600 of Japan's finest performing arts to an extensive American audience. Programs range from the traditional arts of noh, kyogen, bunraku and kabuki to cutting-Edge Theater, dance and music. The Program also commissions new works, produces national tours, organizes residency programs for American and Japanese artists and develops and distributes educational programs. "At once diverse and daring, the program stands toe to toe with some of the most comprehensive cultural exchange endeavors today" (Back Stage).
 
Founded in 1907, Japan Society has evolved into a world-class, multidisciplinary hub for global leaders, artists, scholars, educators, and English and Japanese-speaking audiences. At the Society, more than 100 events each year feature sophisticated, topically relevant presentations of Japanese art and culture and open, critical dialogue on issues of vital importance to the U.S., Japan and East Asia. An American nonprofit, nonpolitical organization, the Society cultivates a constructive, resonant and dynamic relationship between the people of the U.S. and Japan.
 
Interrogations: Words of the Zen Masters runs Friday & Saturday, October 8 & 9 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $28/$23 Japan Society members. Japan Society is located at 333 East 47th Street, between First & Second Avenues (accessible by the 4/5/6 at 42nd Street-Grand Central Station or the E and V at Lexington Avenue & 53rd Street). Tickets can be purchased by calling the Box Office at 212-715-1258, in person at Japan Society or at www.japansociety.org. For more information, call 212-832-1155 or visit the website.
 
Here & Zen Series Special Members-Only Discount Package: Japan Society presents several Zen-related programs in conjunction with The Sound of One Hand: Paintings and Calligraphy by Zen Master Hakuin (October 1, 2010 - January 16, 2011 at Japan Society Gallery), America's first retrospective of the artwork of seminal 18th century Zen Buddhist master Hakuin Ekaku. The Here & Zen Series members-only discount package includes the following four events for $40 (regular member price $47): the symposium Hear the Sound of One Hand: Reflections on the Art of Zen Master Hakuin (October 2), Yoshi Oida's one-man comedy Interrogations (October 8 or 9), a screening of Masaki Kobayashi's 1965 film classic Kwaidan (October 15); and the lecture Field to Table: the Role of Vegetables in Japanese Diet, exploring the Zen origins of Japanese cuisine. Here & Zen package: $40 Japan Society Members only.
 
Major support for Japan Society 2010-11 Performing Arts Programs is provided by the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Endowment Funds and the Endowment for the Performing Arts, established with leadership gifts from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Globus Family, Kyocera Corporation, The Starr Foundation and Toyota Motor Corporation. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; and the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency. Additional support is provided by Dr. John K. Gillespie, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc., The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, Dr. and Mrs. Carl F. Taeusch II, Mr. and Mrs. Norton Belknap, June O. Goldberg, Richard Royce and Paula S. Lawrence. Transportation assistance is provided by All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd.