Taylor Mac devotes most of a decade to solving the question of how we allow "The MIkado" to be performed by non-Asians by transplanting the show to Mars. As G&S didn't actually know any Japanese people to base their characters on, there is nothing inherently Japanese about the play, which in some respects makes it worse that it's using Japanese bodies to tell a British story. But unless we find a living people on Mars, which seems unlikely, there is no reason not to pick a different essentially fictitious people to tell a British story, and set it on Mars. Taylor Mac then does this for at least half an hour (in judy's words, it goes on a lot longer than I felt it should), with fabulous costumes and lights (at least in Philadelphia, which is apparently the best it's looked).
This conversation is making me think that Tams Witmark should license a version of this. It would give a lot of amateur operetta groups the chance to keep doing this show without having to put on yellowface to do it. |
