「FAÇADE FIRM」バルト湾岸三ヶ国公演報告（1992年9月)

豊島重之

（１）

私達は実は自分の顔を見たことがない。むろん写真や鏡でならいくらでも見ているし、相手の顔から読みとれる自分の顔ならよく知っている。体感としても内観としても自分の顔のことは日ごろ健忘するほど知り尽くしているのに、誰も自分のこの顔は見たことがないのだ。顔、それはなんら神秘的な事柄ではなく余りに自明な一ヶの事実である。よく見知ってはいるが、ついに対面しえないもの。非対面性。既に見知っているからこそ、それ以上見知るという欲求は頓挫してしまう。未知や欠如を埋めるべく表現や行動を迫られるという思考はそこでは成り立たず、別の思考が必要なのだ。私が演劇をやる理由も、演劇をもって海外にまで赴く動機もそこにある。つい先日も自作『顔の演劇』をポーランドのワルシャワ、エストニアのターリン、フィンランドのヘルシンキの三市で公演してくることができた。私の劇団モレキュラーとしては四度目の渡欧である。前二回はカフカの手紙に基づく舞台だったが、後の二回はヴィトカッツイの肖像画商会規約に基づく舞台、いわば描かれた顔（外観）でも顔のヴィジョン（内観）でもない顔の思考を演劇化しようとしたものだ。

（２）

ポーランド前衛劇の先駆ヴィトカッツイは、写真家・肖像画家・劇作家である前に顔の採集家であった。何百もの顔を撮り、何百もの顔を描きまくった。自身の顔も膨大な数にのぼる。しかもその一つ一つが実に緻密で驚くほど洞察に溢れている。表情の人類学的フィールドワークを自分の顔一つで達成していると早計しかねないほどだ。しかしここが肝腎な所なのだが、彼は何百もの顔によって内観というものを追究したのではなく、逆に、顔というものからついに内観は駆逐しえないということを示したのである。それは彼の限界や敗北を意味しない。外観はもとより内観もまたどこまでも正対しうるということ、そして顔はたえず正対を強いるということ、ヴィトカッツイはまさにそこに顔を見出したのだから。肖像写真や肖像画の圧倒的な対面性において初めて現出する非対面性として。写真の中の顔がモノとしての平面かつイメージとしての平面なら、この顔の非対面性はいわば名としての平面である。それゆえ前者は両義的な揺らぎを呈し、後者は名ざしの強度だけで成り立つ絶対平面と言ってもよい。これまで多くの研究家や哲学者を呻吟させてきた彼独特の用語「純粋形式」はもはや要らない。それは顔の別名だったのだから。自明なほど確かにそこにあるのだが決して正対することができない顔。それを舞台上に切り出してみせるのが「絶対演劇」なのである。

（３）

ワルシャワ現代美術館長ヴォイチェフ・クルコフスキ氏は「FAÇADE FIRM」上演を観て､「ここには新しい演劇言語の創造がある」と語った。演出家で映画監督のアンジェイ・ワイダ氏をはじめ多くの観客の反応も同様に熱のこもったものだった。一つにはヴィトカッツイの日本語が彼らによく響いたからだろう。私はこの舞台に彼の商会規約の邦訳を二種類とも用いた。ポーランド語原文からのダイレクトな関口訳と、一旦フランス語訳されたものから転訳された松本訳を、交互に同時進行させたのである。勿論ワルシャワの観客には両訳の微妙な差異も差異が織りなす魅力も知る由がなく、日本語自体はやはり異言語に違いない。ところがヴィトカッツイをよく知る彼らにとってその日本語の肉声はもはや単に異言語ではない。耳に届くのは意味不明の音のはずだが、実際は明らかに意味の輪郭がたどれるものに聴こえたようなのだ。強迫的訴訟的内容であるだけにその文体の強度のみが屹立し、かえって言語のフォルムの輪郭が鮮明になったのだ。それこそ顔の言語と言ってよい。勿論、視覚的な要素や他の設定もそれに拍車をかけただろう。しかしイメージや身ぶりなら異言語の障壁を突きぬけて伝わると考えるのは大きな誤解ではあるまいか。視覚言語（外観の顔）や身体言語（内観の顔）は決して私が提唱する「絶対演劇」の端緒にはならない。それらは異言語や多言語が強いる対面性に捕われがちなのだから。私の言う顔の言語とは対面性との絶えざる闘争において辛うじて得られるものだ。「顔の演劇」におけるヴィトカッツイの日本語はその証左に他ならない。

（初出：「シティロード」1992年12月号に抜粋掲載）

FAÇADE FIRM

The Baltic Tour Report (September 1992)

Shigeyuki TOSHIMA

We can never really see our own faces. Of course, they can be seen as reflected images in mirrors or photographs, and it is possible to gain some idea of one's looks through the facial expressions of others. As a physical sense and as an inner vision one seems to know their face so well that it is no longer even considered at times, but, nevertheless, it is impossible to see one's own face. There is nothing mysterious about the face, per se; it is a cut and dried fact. Although you can know your face so intimately, actual confrontation will never be possible: Non-confrontational.

As you are so familiar with your face there is little desire to see it from further aspects. Therefore, there is not much creative drive to uncover the unknown and missing aspects. Discovering non-confrontational aspects is the different drive for my own motivation and involvement with the theatre and for showing such works overseas.

Recently, we were able to perform Façade Firm in three cities, Warsaw (Poland), Tallinn (Estonia) and Helsinki (Finland). This was the fourth overseas tour for the Molecular Company. The first two tours were based upon letters by Franz Kafka and the latter two were concerned with the Rules of Portrait Painting Firm by Witkacy. The current works are dramatizations of a concept of a face that is neither drawn (external face) nor self-envisioned (internal face).

Witkacy was a pioneer of the Polish avante-garde theatre. Besides being a photographer, portrait painter, novelist, philosopher and dramatist, he was a collector of faces; he photographed and painted many hundreds of faces. His self-portrait also was captured in huge number. Furthermore, each face is rendered with fine detail and rich with remarkable insight. One could assume that he had achieved an anthropological field study of human expressions simply through his self-portraits. What is important, however, was not the pursuit of an inner vision through the range of these hundreds of faces, but rather an attempt to show that inner vision could not be eliminated from the face. This does not show any limitation nor defeat. The external image as well as the internal vision appear in confrontational position and the face always imposes such direct confrontation, and this is the very concept that Witkacy found in faces. The non-confrontational aspect emerges for the first time through the dominant confrontation with the photographed or painted portraits. If a face in the photograph is a two-dimensional image or two-dimensional in substance, then the non-confrontational aspect of this face is two-dimensional in name. Therefore, the former presents an amphibious oscillation and the latter is based on an absolute plane constructed from such intensity of naming. Consequently, this dramatist's metaphysically specific term "pure form", which has always given serious problems for philosophers and scholarship, is no longer needed because it was synonymous with face. The face clearly exists, but can never be confronted. The "absolute theatre" is an attempt to stage this concept.

Wojczech Krukowski, a director of the Contemporary Art Museum of Warsaw, said after seeing a performance of the Façade Firm, "Here is a creation of a new theatrical language". There was a lot of enthusiastic reaction from audiences that included Andrzej Wajda, a renowned stage and film director. One reason for such reaction was perhaps “Witkacy's Japanese" (the translation of Witkacy's text into Japanese) sounded refreshingly pleasant to their ears.

For this performance we used two differing translations of the Rules･･ ; T. Sekiguchi's translation that is translated directly from the original Polish and K. Matsumoto's version from a French translation were used through simultaneous interspacing. Of course, the audience in Warsaw had no means with which to appreciate the subtle differences between the two translations, and obviously the Japanese language is completely foreign to them. However, to the audience who knew Witkacy well, the Japanese on the stage was more than an alien language.

What they heard was a sound without meaning but nevertheless they seemed to grasp some meaning or the form of the words. Because the contents of the Rules･･ is concerned with aspects of strong persecution, the intensity of writing is released and therefore the pure form of the words became clearly discernible. This is the "language of face".

Of course, the visual and other theatrical elements enhanced it. But if one thinks that images and gestures can transcend the language barrier then it is a great misunderstanding. The visual language (exterior of face) and body language (inner vision of face) will never trigger the "absolute theatre" that I advocate, because they are captured by the confrontational aspects imposed by many differing languages. The language of face which I propose can be achieved only through the constant struggle with such confrontational aspects. The Japanese translation of Witkacy in our performance Façade Firm proves such ideas precisely.

(From the magazine “City Road", Dec.'92／Tr. into E. by R. YAMAMOTO)