Saturday, September 19, 2015
'Mikado' Production Canceled Over Racial Concerns
The New York Times: A production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado” planned for New York this December was canceled after it drew criticism over how its largely non-Asian cast planned to portray the stereotyped Japanese characters and culture that are often seen as central to the work, the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players announced on their website.
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2 comments:
This is a pretty hot issue, what right do people of the unorthodox race for a show have to be in it? (Also, fun side note, I am pretty sure my high school put on this opera and I can tell you now we did not really have many people of Asian descent in the performance majors so we must have done it with mainly Caucasians.) I read an article this past week about Otello being produced with a white cast. They are not in black face, so they are not trying to portray another race, but at the same time the lead is supposed to be not be Caucasian, as we all probably know. I think that makes a pretty large difference in the way people place the actions of a production on a ‘racism scale’; whether or not the performers are trying to become a separate race or if they are re-interpreting a role.
The aspect of the article not being discussed openly is the issue of the dramaturgical question of 'why this play now?' Now, I dislike that question, as I feel that it is counterproductive to most productions, but The Mikado, when it was written, was a satire for British culture and politics. There is clearly no way that staging the production today in New York, the same way it would have been staged back then, that it could be making similar statements. The troupe's leader talks more about honoring Gilbert and Sullivan, which is beautifully fair, but not the whole picture. To honor them, while simultaneously crafting images that are racist and sending a poor message, is an unacceptable reason to do a production. The fact that they replaced it with 'Penzance' speaks to the idea that honoring Gilbert and Sullivan is still a possibility, just perhaps without the Mikado. However, I do feel uncomfortable with banning the ability to stage the Mikado, as it feels like stifling the potential for the art to survive. Maybe I will just keep it at the troupe needs to be aware of the potential ways in which their production could be interpreted.
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