Kanako Hayashi

Mythology Upon the Table

2019

Performance 100 mins (Performing Arts)

Produced and Performed by Shakespeare's Wild Sisters Group

Venue: National Theatre & Concert Hall, Experimental Theatre, Taipei, Taiwan

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- Who is hero? What is home? What it means to be Asian? -

As one of the performer, I have been collaborating in the creation of theater piece Mythology Upon the Table - directed by Baboo Liao.

I am creating my role and my story line by combining my swimming, water experiences in my life and the Greek mythology, The Odyssey. I find a place for my stories along with performers, creators from India, Phillipines, South Korea and Taiwan. My charactor is Penelope, she is an one of the character in The Odyssey. And my name is Kanako, I come from Japan. I am acting Kanako in between Penelope and Kanako. I am creating Penelope in between Kanako and Penelope.

How I can see myself? How close or how far am I from my self image?

Who is hero? What is home?
What it means to be Asian?

- Text for Mythology Upon the Table, Kanako Hayashi

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Director’s Note:

Mythology Upon The Table originates from my work for the exchanges in a directors’ workshop at the Lincoln Center in New York last year. At that time, I chose American playwright Mary Zimmerman’s adaptation of Homer’s epic, The Odyssey, and converted the mythology narrated in a hero’s point of view into a narration by other characters surrounding the hero. The story was set at the table of a dinner banquet. Performers told the story while improvising with all sorts of objects on the dinner table to create such micro visual-audio elements as scenes and sounds.  Based on the format, I began to wonder: As a director from an island country in Asia, what kind of perspective should I use to tell an Ancient Greek mythology? Why should we explore mythologies? What kind of connection exists between Greek mythologies and us? How are we going to narrate Asian mythologies and civilizations that belong to us?  Consequently, I invited seven artistic creators from five different countries, including actors and actresses, choreographers, visual and video artists, and performance artists, to gather around a table and prepare a feast of mythologies. Through the development of collective creation, the story was divided into seven chapters: “Hero,” “Female,” “Others,” “Metamorphosis,” “Politics,” “Gods and Goddesses,” and “Home.” Each of the chapters was named after a mythological character, in which the performers introduce their own experiences, cultural backgrounds and personal perspectives to challenge and question each other via dialectic discourses, and then eventually direct the whole concept to a broader spectrum covering different nationalities, regions, homes and modern Asian societies.  In the name of mythology, this production is the passing-on, exchange, occupation and re-telling of a story through self-contemplation via the eyes of “others.” Like water showing various shapes and forms in different vessels, the story aims to echo Odyssey’s endless life journey of wandering on the sea.

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Director - Baboo Liao

Performers - Hyung Seok Jeon, Kanako Hayashi, Russ Ligtas, Sharanya Ramprakash, Lin Sulien, Hsiao Dongyi, Liu Yencheng

Producer - Yang Pohan Assistant Director - Wen Szuni Stage - Li Polin Lighting - Teng Chengwei Music - Blaire Ko Video - Sun Rayhung Costume - Chen Jamo Choreography - Liu Yencheng Stage manage - Teng Hsiangting Graphic - Aaron Nieh Promotion photo - Benjakon photography - Etang Chen

Performance: National Theatre & Concert Hall, Experimental Theatre, Taipei, Taiwan I 1 - 3 March 2019 I