Maxime Kurvers brings to the stage a performed dialogue with the Japanese actor and theorist Yoshi Oida. It investigates, over the course of incursions into his memories, the role and social function of performers. In doing so, it also brings up the much wider question of the theatre’s ethical and metaphysical scope. 

Following on from Theories and pratices of acting (1428-2022), 4 questions for Yoshi Oida is part of an anthropological theatre project in which Maxime Kurvers maps out the practices and theories of his discipline. Reduced to its dramaturgical core and a handful of accessories, the staging concentrates our attention on the dialogue with the Japanese actor and theorist. It picks up on the codes of the “encounter with an artist” format, and uses them as the basis for performance. Onstage, Yoshi Oida shares his reflections on an art which he has been practicing for over half a century. The piece then enables these memories to find their expression on the stage. The interview, conducted in as spontaneous a manner as possible, is structured around four central questions. Its aim is to pay homage to Yoshi Oida’s unique approach to theatre, beyond its sense-led dimension. In discovering Yoshi Oida’s practice, theatre becomes a way of situating ourselves and making our way forward in the world… as well learning to live and, of course, to die in it.

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