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Jenny de Reuck and Helena Grehan |
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Originally conceived as a single critical documentation of the Japan Foundation Asia Centre's production of LEAR, the two articles offer an initial dialogue on a performance that has significant implications for notions of cultural exchange. Their division into separate but analytically linked papers followed as a result of a process of research that saw the orientation of the authors relocate, logically, from an initial interest in critical documentation of the project to a more theoretically informed engagement with the specifics of interculturalism and gender manifested in this complex and exciting performance work. LEAR was produced by the Japan Foundation Asia Center in Tokyo, bringing together artists from China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, and was directed by Ong Keng Sen from Singapore. The production's world premiere took place in Tokyo in September 1997. The production also toured: Osaka and Fukuoka (Japan) in September 1997; Hong Kong, Singapore, Jakarta (Indonesia), and Perth (Australia) in January and February 1999; and Berlin (Germany) and Copenhagen (Denmark) in June and July 1999. Jenny de Reuck: 'The mirror shattered into tiny pieces': Reading Gender and Culture in the Japan Foundation Asia Centre's LEAR. Helena Grehan: Performed Promiscuities: Interpreting Interculturalism in the Japan Foundation Asia Centre's LEAR. 
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