‘THE DAMASK DRUM’
A Poetic Journey into a Technology of Death, Desire and Delusion
An adaptation of Yukio Mishima contemporary NOH play in dialogue with the original Aya No Tsuzumi NOH play by Zeami
Liminal Theatre and Performance, 2006
Melbourne, Australia
https://liminalperformance.wixsite.com/liminal/the-damask-drum
“Damask Drum: An endless dance of death… I could not help but be transfixed”
John Bailey, Realtime Vol 77, November 2006 - read full review
“The Damask Drum is not only theatre that has poetry in it - which is one thing - but something rather more rare: a poetic theatre, working transformations rich and strange.”
Alison Croggon, TheatreNotes, November 12, 2006 - read full review
"This rendition of The Damask Drum is an eloquent and powerfully moving song of the damned....it seems that the bodies of the performers are afflicted, almost diseased, by a surfeit of emotion that words alone cannot contain....But the most innovative feature of this production is its use of film....The audio-visuals lend an eerie spectrality to the production, but they also relocate Noh in an urban context, where the gaps between people can be as large as the gaps between buildings - large enough, certainly, for love to fall through without a trace."
Cameron Woodhead, The Melbourne Age, November 28, 2006 - read full review
‘The Damask Drum’: Vision and team of artists
Presented in Liminal’s temporary accomodation in Abbotsford, the 2006 adaptation of Mishima’s text and the original Noh play Aya No Tsuzumi by Zeami continued Liminal Theatre’s research into:
- The Contemporary Noh plays of Mishima Yukio (1925-1970).
- The traditional 13th century Noh plays that Mishima drew on.
- The writings of Japanese actor and playwright Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443) on actor training.
- The philosophy and practice of Indonesian director and Liminal collaborator Sardono Kusumo.
- The tension between live performance and digital images.
Liminal wove the source material into a poem about a ghost inhabiting a macabre and empty world of desire, unable to escape death. A man caught in a never-ending cycle of awakening in the memory of an unobtainable woman. A story suspended in a gap between two worlds; the deep pool of our yearnings and cold winds of our isolation.
The Damask Drum was the second production in the Mishima in the City Project.
Director: Robert Draffin
Film: Ivanka Sokol
Set design: Ina Indira Shanahan
Lighting design: Luke Hails
Sound design and music performance: Jethro Woodward
Costume design: Jessie Willow Tucker
Stage management: Richard Whitehouse
Publicity: Mandy Hildebrand
Performers: Alan Knoepfler and Mary Sitarenos
Film acting, voices and stage business: Paul Robertson / Raffaele Rufo / Claire Nicholls
‘The Damask Drum’: The process
Starting in May 2005, for 3 years I was thoroughly involved in Liminal Theatre and Performance (LTP) as company member, researcher, and performer. When I left Melbourne for the first time in December 2007, I continued my work with the company as a research collaborator and training consultant on somatic practices. Liminal Theatre and Performance is a company of artists and associates committed to theatre research, practice, and performance. LTP explores traditional and contemporary arts training practices and collaborates and shares its research and practice with different communities, cultures, and organisations. Through these developments, LTP also produces original theatre productions based on multiple sources.
I was involved in all company activities: performance training, collaborative theatre making, development of a language for the creative practice, and our corporate training association with Melbourne Business School in Emotional Intelligence and Conflict Management skills. Throughout 2006 I participated in the creative development, production, and performance of ‘The Damask Drum: A Poetic Journey into a Technology of Death, Desire and Delusion’ (an adaptation of Yukio Mishima contemporary NOH play in dialogue with the original Aya No Tsuzumi NOH play by Zeami) presented to the public in November 2006 (https://liminalperformance.wixsite.com/liminal/the-damask-drum). Since 2008 I have been an active consultant of LTP research into somatic practices through continuous video-conferencing international discussions and through my practice-led PhD at Deakin University Melbourne (2016-2020).
“The Damask Drum” is an ancient Japanese theatre piece of the Noh Theatre tradition. The text of this work has been rewritten in the second half of the 20th century by the Japanese writer Yuko Mishima. In the period October 2005-Nov 2006 Liminal Theatre and Performance worked on both the original and the contemporary text in the attempt to create a third version better suited to the needs and sensibilities of Robert Draffin (artistic director) and the other company members (especially the two protagonist actors, Mary Sitarenos and Alan Knopfler).
Liminal’s “Damask Drum Project” began in 2004/2005 with a grant application to the Australia Council for the Arts. The communication of success was received by company members in October 2005. With the funding becoming available a series of planning and monitoring mechanisms and other activities (e.g. recruiting a project manager, light designer, set designer, sound designer, costume designer, promotional agent, etc.) had to be initiated. The work was coordinated by Robert Draffin whose role of part-time artistic director was soon to become a full-time directing and managing job. I believe that the funding event changed company dynamics and activities substantially. From a focus on training and research and a “volunteer” effort to keep the company going, the company shifted towards the more usual logics of outcome, performance and monetary rewards.
Formally, “The Damask Drum” project started in February 2006 with the “convergence workshop”. Informally, however, company members started to work on the Damask Drum project since October 2005 (e.g., by exploring the original script). The convergence workshop in February 2006 involved both company members and non-member artists (a costume designer, a light designer, a sound designer and a set designer) who had already worked but only sporadically with Liminal. Since then the project was divided into three main areas: video, audio and theatre performance. The final show had the objective of putting the three dimensions together harmoniously.
Before the production, which began in October 2006, the company and associate members were involved in the following activities: costume making; film shooting; sound recording; and moving images gathering and elaboration. Rehearsals began in August 2006. Production lasted for five weeks: from 2 October to 7 November and involved rehearsals, stage, sound, costume and light setting. Performance began on 9 November. The last show was performed on the 26th of November. The performance venue (a warehouse in Abbotswood) was cleared on November 27, 2006.