Reviewed by:

• New-Illusion
• Kyueun Kim

The lonely stage had an electric bass and an amplifier to one side, but otherwise, it was empty. Woman (Shiibashi Ayana) and Man (Adachi Tomomitsu) entered, followed by Musician (Jeong Jung-yeop), who began playing the bass softly. Woman and Man began chatting about a play that had been previously performed in the theatre; it was set in an apartment they once shared, and they performed as their past selves. Their conversation about an armchair, the only theatrical prop that remained after the previous show, subtly transitioned to a sofa in the apartment of their past. The meaning behind their words became blurred, leaving the audience to wonder whether they were discussing a play, their relationship, or both. Their conversation evoked feelings of emptiness that stemmed from endings: the closing night of a theatrical run, a break-up, the fading of youthful aspirations to “change the world.”

The premise might seem familiar from elsewhere in theatre history, but in Okada Toshiki’s New-Illusion, performers and theatrical props were conspicuously absent from the physical stage. At SOTA Studio Theatre in Singapore, the audience witnessed a life-sized, prerecorded performance projected onto two large vertical screens at center stage. The mini-malistic set was defined by these screens, set apart by a noticeable gap, and an overhead display for English supertitles, all dimmed in tune with the venue’s ambient lighting. Hidden speakers and microphones, strategically placed behind the screens, added depth to the sound. Even when the projected performers disappeared into the gaps between the screens or stepped outside the screens’ edges, the audience could still hear their footsteps and locate their movements in space. Using this careful visual and auditory dramaturgy allowed Okada to blur the boundaries between the video space and the physical venue, evoking the atmospheric illusion that performers and theatrical props were physically present on stage even though they weren’t.

New-Illusion, which premiered at Tokyo’s Oji Theater in 2022, is the most recent iteration of Okada Toshiki’s EIZO-Theater, which he has developed in close collaboration with video designer Yamada Shimpei. Deriving its name from the Japanese term eizō—an image that has been reproduced—EIZO-Theater emphasizes using video to project prere-corded performances in theatrical space. The concept of EIZO-Theater debuted with the exhibition Beach, Eyelids, and Curtains (2018), where six theatrical [End Page 564]

New-Illusion’s two screens. Jeong Jung-Yeop (Musician) plays bass on the left; on the right, Shiibashi Ayana (Woman) stands in front of Adachi Tomomitsu (Man), who sits on a chair. Photo: Tomita Ryohei.

New-Illusion in performance at Tokyo’s Oji Theater. Photo: Tomita Ryohei.

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The EIZO-Theater workshop facilitated by Yamada Shimpei at the Singapore International Festival of Arts.

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video pieces were displayed at the Contemporary Art Museum in Kumamoto, Japan. Okada then integrated EIZO-Theater techniques with traditional theatrical conventions in Eraser Mountain (2019), which featured actors on screens alongside live performers and various onstage objects. KAISOU: Layer, Class, or Hierarchy (2022), presented at the Toyohashi Arts Theatre PLAT, marked the beginning of a new phase of EIZO-Theater practice that relied exclusively on projected images. New-Illusion represents the fullest statement of the EIZO-Theater aesthetic to date.

What is the new illusion in New-Illusion? It is the illusion created by the interplay between the video space (where the illusion of theatrical acting unfolds) and the empty physical space. Or, in Okada’s own words, it is the illusion generated by an illusion. It exists in the gap between the screen and off-screen space. This dramaturgy of empty spaces, gaps, or voids is key to the creation and experience of a new illusion, which does not aim at realistic representation that immerses and overwhelms the audience. Instead, it gently invites the audience to a subtle, quiet, and...

审阅者：

• 新幻象
• 金奎恩

孤独的舞台一侧有一台电贝司和一台扩音器，除此之外，空无一人。女人（椎桥绫奈饰）和男人（足立友光饰）进来了，音乐家（郑正业饰）紧随其后，开始轻柔地演奏贝斯。女人和男人开始谈论之前在剧院上演的一部戏剧；故事发生在他们曾经共用的一间公寓里，他们的表演就像过去的自己一样。他们谈论的扶手椅是上一场演出后唯一剩下的戏剧道具，巧妙地转向了他们过去公寓里的沙发。他们话语背后的含义变得模糊，让观众怀疑他们是在讨论戏剧、他们的关系，还是两者兼而有之。他们的谈话唤起了因结局而产生的空虚感：一场戏剧演出的闭幕之夜、分手、“改变世界”的年轻人愿望的消退。

这个前提在戏剧史上的其他地方可能看起来很熟悉，但在冈田俊树的《新幻象》中，表演者和戏剧道具在实体舞台上明显缺席。在新加坡的 SOTA Studio Theater，观众亲眼目睹了真人大小的预先录制的表演被投射到中央舞台的两个大垂直屏幕上。这些屏幕定义了简约的布景，中间有明显的间隙，头顶上有英文字幕显示屏，所有这些都根据场地的环境照明而变暗。隐藏式扬声器和麦克风巧妙地放置在屏幕后面，增加了声音的深度。即使投影的表演者消失在屏幕之间的缝隙中或走出屏幕边缘，观众仍然可以听到他们的脚步声并定位他们在空间中的动作。利用这种仔细的视觉和听觉戏剧手法，冈田模糊了视频空间和物理场地之间的界限，唤起了一种氛围错觉，即表演者和戏剧道具实际上不在舞台上。

《New-Illusion》于 2022 年在东京王子剧院首演，是冈田俊树 EIZO-Theater 的最新版本，该剧院是冈田俊树与视频设计师山田真平密切合作开发的。EIZO-Theater的名称源自日语术语“eizō”（一种已复制的图像），强调使用视频在剧院空间中投射预先录制的表演。艺卓剧院的概念首次亮相于《海滩、眼睑和窗帘》展览（2018 年），其中有六场戏剧表演[尾页 564]

New-Illusion的两个屏幕。Jeong Jung-Yeop（音乐家）在左边演奏贝斯；右侧，椎桥绫奈（女）站在坐在椅子上的足立友光（男）面前。照片：富田良平。

新幻象在东京王子剧场上演。照片：富田良平。

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由山田真平在新加坡国际艺术节举办的艺卓剧院研讨会。

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视频作品在日本熊本当代艺术博物馆展出。随后，冈田在《橡皮山》（2019 年）中将艺卓剧院技术与传统戏剧惯例相结合，其中演员在屏幕上与现场表演者和各种舞台上的物品一起出现。在丰桥艺术剧院 PLAT 上演的《KAISON：层、阶级或等级》（2022）标志着艺卓剧院实践完全依赖投影图像的新阶段的开始。New-Illusion代表了艺卓剧院美学迄今为止最完整的表述。

新幻象中的新幻象是什么？这是由视频空间（戏剧表演幻觉展开的地方）和空旷的物理空间之间相互作用产生的幻觉。或者，用冈田自己的话来说，就是幻象产生的幻象。它存在于屏幕和屏幕外空间之间的间隙中。这种空旷的空间、间隙或空隙的戏剧性是创造和体验新幻觉的关键，它并不旨在让观众沉浸和压倒的现实表现。相反，它温柔地邀请观众进入一种微妙、安静、……