Review: U-Bu-Su-Na, Coronet Theatre

Review: U-Bu-Su-Na, Coronet Theatre

Summary

Rating

80

Excellent

A dazzling dance of darkness that embraces alternative ways to understand the human place in the world.

I love a show that stretches my mind or offers something I’ve never seen before. Drawn in by the Coronet Theatre’s description of it as a “dance of utter darkness”, I was intrigued to attend this Japanese Butoh performance.

U-Bu-Su-Na is a series of evocative sequences created by Kentaro Kujirai in collaboration with dramaturg Shuri Kido. The title translates as “the mystical divine power that protects the land and those who live there”, and the performers take us on a journey that contemplates contemporary urbanism and Japan’s ancient spiritual heritage. This idea manifests from the moment they take the stage, with costumes (KMRii, C.R.O.W design lab) blending ideas of city and soil across their bodies. 

The dance is performed with utter precision and astonishing energy by Kujirai, Makoto Sadakata, Izumi Noguchi and Hirohisa Kanamori. It is an organic, fluxing work, juxtaposing the old and the new, the urban and the natural. It draws on ideas of elemental existence to render understanding through unexpected yet thrilling suggestion. There’s little direct narrative here; more manifestations of emotion and sensation. 

The shifting sound track (FUJI||||||||||TA, Kota Nakasato) is evocative of the natural world, offering birdsong wind or waves; yet there exists too an undercurrent of white noise; a disruptive reminder of a world not always at peace.

Initially we seem to be in a dark cave, the sound of water dripping as the dancers emerge individually, and navigate around each other. Their bodies and faces engage in grotesque, intensely beautiful distortions, simultaneously emitting a sense of discomfort. Working tightly – almost blindly – in each other’s space, there is a tangible recognition of mutual proximity unregistered: people existing with and without connection simultaneously. The use of every inch of their bodies is extraordinary, with toes and fingers telling of trauma, extended necks exposing vulnerability.

The four are swept away by an imagined wave, rolling backwards until each is left balanced in a precarious foetal position that speaks of a fragile world. It’s one of a number of hugely challenging physical endeavours we see this evening. This position recurs throughout the performance, but absolute stillness is often counteracted by vital energy and action; rapid skittering, slapping the fabric of the building, an almost epileptic fit depicted.

My anticipation of synchronised movements in the dance was totally subverted. Often poses were minutely different, a foot or hand deliberately slightly awry from that of the adjacent person, representative of our human state of being all the same yet individual. 

Kujirai’s extraordinary solo performance is the highlight of the night. He shifts from human to object, embodying the state of a puppet, where limbs and digits are animated as if beyond his control, and bodily agency is questioned, suggesting ideas of powerlessness within the human condition.

There are welcome humorous moments too, particularly a scene where the lights snap on and a character with a broom attempts to sweep away an exhausted performer and the traces of him left in the sweat on the floor. Here the brightness is a transgression in the art; surprising when the lighting throughout is often dark and moody. Kazuya Yoshida’s lighting design reveals powerful agency, redefining humanness by wiping out faces and leaving body parts isolated and exposed. Time too is questioned as a mirror ball punctures the stage with dots, creating an epic sense of an expanding universe. The ending is almost an afterlife, with the performers exiting, absorbed into the dark.

Come the conclusion, I have embraced a new way of understanding the world and feel physically and mentally different. This dazzling production might just shift the foundations of how you encounter the world.

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Created in cooperation with Hijikata Tatsumi Archive in Keio University Art Center, Hijikata Tatsumi Asbestos-kan

Choreography by: Kentaro Kujirai
Dramaturg: Shuri Kido
Critical Collaborator: Yurika Kuremiya
Music by: FUJI||||||||||TA, Kota Nakasato
Lighting Design by: Kazuya Yoshida
Costume Design by: KMRii, C.R.O.W design lab

U Bu Su Na runs at the Coronet Theatre until Saturday 16th November. Further information and booking details can be found here.