The Methuen Drama Handbook of Interculturalism and Performance by Lei Daphne; McIvor Charlotte;

Author:Lei, Daphne; McIvor, Charlotte; [McIvor, Daphne P. Lei and Charlotte]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published: 2020-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

CONCLUSION

Lei concludes her article by noting that “Self-orientalization has gotten the East this far, and now it is time to think outside of the oriental box.”33 One ASEAN demonstrates one such attempt and some of the difficulties, and successes, of such work. The artists and organizers never referred to their work as “intercultural,” even though their endeavor was mindful of the kind of developments happening in international festivals and large-scale spectacles that are marketed towards tourists and often acknowledged as intercultural. Since Patrice Pavis published his now almost monolithic hourglass34 approach to intercultural performance, many studies of such performances have considered the ways that different types of performance have mixed or failed to blend. Certainly it is useful and interesting to understand the relationships between Shakesepare and kathakali presented on a recreated Globe stage for an international audience located in London.35 In a recent rethinking of intercultural performance, Pavis has revisited the different categories of intercultural performance, but it is difficult to locate where One ASEAN would fit in this framework. For example, it might be considered to be “syncretic theatre”36 because is includes music, text, and visuals from several cultures—but One ASEAN does not mix European forms or address postcolonial issues. Pavis argues that multicultural theatre “does not exist” because it denies “salutary contacts and exchanges between different cultures.”37 One ASEAN might also be considered community theatre because it is “working for a local or regional community in the broad sense of the term,”38 but this concept does not take account of the ways the artists worked or the combination of puppets, bodies, and story.

The artists planning APEX are drawn to the universal appeal that artists such as Singaporean Ong Keng Sen capitalizes on for his international performances, but they are wary of losing artistic control and the specificity of their own traditions. Is it possible for these Asian artists to create satisfying work while consciously grappling with a Western paradigm of intercultural performance? While pondering the overall value of HIT, Lei hopes that “despite the inevitability interrupted cultural flow into these productions, self-reflection, recognition, and appreciation of one’s own culture would form a continuous flow out of the productions and back into the cultural reservoir for future theatrical endeavors. Furthermore, the discourse from the East should contribute to the theorization of intercultural theatre and thus to the overall well-being of the intercultural environment.”39

As intercultural performance, APEX was both a success and perhaps a missed opportunity. The final performance that might tour in the region and beyond has yet to be realized. The constraints of time, artistic differences that were exacerbated by economic and social hierarchies, and a lack of funding kept the project from ever developing a final product that could be marketed globally to represent the ASEAN Community. The successes were on a different scale. The artists were challenged to use their traditions in new ways, to consider how symbols or characters communicate to a variety of audiences, and learn new methods through the exchange. They are able to take this experience home and apply the ideas to their own creative process and traditions.

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