Kenichi Tani

Jugun-chu no Ludwig Wittgenstein ga [abbreviated] (Ludwig Wittgenstein in Military Service)

April 12, 2016
Kenichi Tani

Kenichi Tani

Playwright, director and translator. Born in Fukushima Prefecture in 1982 and raised in Kashiwa City, Chiba Pref. Tani is the leader of the theater unit DULL-COLORED POP. Tani majored in Theater arts at Meiji University and took courses in Theatre and Drama Study at University of Kent at Canterbury in the UK before starting his own theater company in Japan. His theater style has been described as “a fortunate mix of innovative methods and a knowledge of classical theater” (Ai Nagai) and his creative style as a playwright and director has been widely praised as pop and rock and literary and wins praise in fields ranging from small-theater productions to commercial theater.

In 2013, his Japanese translation and staging of Freud’s last Session with the Japanese title Saigo no Seishin Bunseki – Freud vs Lewis (The Last Psychoanalysis: Freud vs. Lewis) won him the 6th Yushi Odajima Drama in Translation Award and the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Arts Festival’s Excellence Award.

In recent years he has also collaborated on numerous works with renowned foreign directors, serving as translator, script writer and directing assistant on their productions. They include Silviu Purcarete’s production of Richard III, Philippe Decouflé’s production of “Watashi ha Shingo, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s production of PLUTO, David Leveaux’s production of Eternal Chikamatsu and others. Representative works in recent years include the KAAT production of The Threepenny Opera (translation, stage script, direction), the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre production of Every brilliant thing (translation direction), DULL-COLORED POP production of the Fukushima Trilogy and many others. The Fukushima Trilogy (1961: Midnight Sunrise1986: Moebius strip2011: The Words Want to be Spoken) is the winner of the 64th Kishida Drama Award. The second play, 1986: Moebius strip is the winner of the 23rd Tsuruya Namboku Memorial Award.

DULL-COLORED POP
https://www.dcpop.org/

This is the third play that Kenichi Tani has written for the theater unit Théâtre des Annales that he established for the purpose of staging dialogue plays on serious subjects. It premiered in 2013 and has been restaged in 2015 and ’16. The play depicts the philosophical thought and search for the meaning of life of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein from the time he enlisted with the Austro-Hungarian Army to fight in World War I to the publication of his main philosophical book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus . The play’s full title is “The Young Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in Military Service – The last line he arrived at in a watchtower under a shower of bullets during a night battle of the Brusilov Offensive – A story about facts that can’t be spoken of but only shown when faced with the question of what to kill and what one prays will be kept alive, realizing the words, ‘People can speak clearly about things that can be spoken of, but are forced to remain silent in the face of things that can’t be spoken of’.”
Jugun-chu no Ludwig Wittgenstein ga [abbreviated] (Ludwig Wittgenstein in Military Service) Kenichi Tani

Shugun-chu no Ludwig Wittgenstein ga
[abbreviated] (Ludwig Wittgenstein in Military Service)

(Oct. 15 – 27, 2015 at Komaba Agora Theater) (C) Théâtre des Annales

Data :
Premiere: 2013
Cast: 5 (5 male)

A military barracks on the Eastern Front in World War I is the setting. Ludwig is writing a letter to his friend Vincent. He is making no progress in his true “work”: philosophy. Everything is unclear, in his thoughts about the world and the military situation on the Eastern Front.

Enters Vincent, who is in England and could not possibly be here on the Eastern Front. Ludwig talks with Vincent about love, about logic and about words.

To escape the din of the other soldiers betting on a game of cards, Vincent disappears. The winner of the card game, Michael, goes off to spend his winnings on a prostitute. Michael’s physiognomy resembles that of Vincent.

Seeing Ludwig absorbed in reading the Gospel in the New Testament, Kamil shows him his leg wounded in the trench fighting and berates him saying, “God is long since dead.”

The gentle-tempered Bernard is praying for the souls of his dead fellow soldiers. Then he asks, “If God is dead, then to whom am I praying?.

Sergeant Steiner comes into the barracks and starts a strategy briefing. He says that the squad is ordered to deploy to the front tonight. He gives them their orders: “If the enemy comes, shoot them.” This leaves the soldiers in a discouraged state. Steiner uses the bread, sausage and cigarette buts scattered around the table to make a map of the mountains and river of the battlefield and the positions of the troops, and then he explains their mission. The opposing force is expected to outnumber them several times and to be armed with every kind of weapon.

Steiner says, “Don’t worry. When we win, we win. When we die, we die.” When Bernard asks him about the presence of God, Steiner takes a hip flask as a symbol of God and places it on their own side of the battlefield, then he takes Kamil with him to service the machine gun.

Left behind, Ludwig adds to the tabletop map the positions of the watchtower, machine guns and the layout of the trenches, and he speculates about the enemy’s strategy for the coming offensive. This leads him to a question. Why can we use things like this to represent realities? Then he comes to a realization. We use words to describe realities. With words we can describe our world, in all aspects, from the positions of objects we see about us to the outer boundaries of the universe. This realization excites him greatly.

Words can be used not only to represent realities but also to talk about all of the possible worlds that may exist. However, the God that Steiner has used the hip flask to represent is not in the position where he has placed it. But, it can be said that God exists.

Vincent appears in front of Ludwig again. Each describes in words a different landscape they perceive spread out in front of them. Then they go on to describe the days of the past that they spent together at university, in a fantasy world and on a journey to the face of the moon.

Ludwig says, “The limits of thought are the same as the limits of words,” and “The borderline of the limits of thought can only be drawn from the inside.” Vincent says to Ludwig, “God is on the outside of the universe. The outside cannot be seen from the inside..

Steiner calls for the squad to gather. The time to start the offensive is approaching. He begins a drawing of straws to decide who will man the dangerous watchtower, but as if seeking a place to die, Kamil suddenly comes forward and volunteers for the assignment. Steiner ignores him and it is decided that Michael will man the watchtower.

Steiner repeats again, “When we win, we win.” Ludwig refutes this statement as illogical. Bernard places the hip flask on the table, saying, “God is here.” Ludwig refutes this statement with the idea that God is not of material substance, and he says, “There must be something that resembles God, but it is not in this room.” Then he turns off the room’s light. Anxiety rules.

In the dark, the squad remembers the trench war ahead. The sound of bombardment, the shouts, the searchlights sweeping the vast darkness in search of enemy troops.

Bernard asks if they are really alive. He doesn’t know. Ludwig turns on the light again, but darkness still reigns in the men’s world.

“I want to turn on the light.” Ludwig makes a request, volunteering to man the searchlight in the watchtower. The soldiers go out to the battle.

It is now two weeks after that battle. Ludwig is writing a letter to Vincent. In these two weeks he has made progress in his “work” in philosophy. In the letter he writes, “People can speak clearly about things that can be spoken of, but are forced to remain silent in the face of things that can’t be spoken of..

Steiner begins a strategy briefing. He reads the orders, “The Austro-Hungarian army has the advantage in the war now.” “Today the infantry will withdraw.” Then he hands a letter to Ludwig.

The letter, written by Vincent’s mother, says that Vincent has died in an accident, and expresses her gratitude to Ludwig for his friendship.

Ludwig embraces Michael, who has been poking fun at him, and he prays for the soul of Vincent. Ludwig begins preparing for the squad’s retreat.

Related Tags