DAVID BOWIE

STAGE
THE LANGUAGE
ARCHIVE
Exploring communication
and love on stage
BY MARTIN LEROUX
The Tokyo International Players’ upcoming
production of The Language
Archive poses an interesting question:
How do you say love? The acclaimed
play by Los Angeles playwright Julia
Cho explores the ostensibly simple yet sometimes
painfully complex nature of communication.
The story finds a language archivist—
a master of several tongues—watching his
marriage crumble as a result of his inability to
express his love to his wife. Metropolis talks
to Brian Berdanier, director of The Language
Archive, which is performed for the first time
ever in Japan this February.
Please tell us a bit about yourself.
I am a teacher, actor, and director originally from
the lush and lovely Rogue Valley of southern
Oregon, USA, but have spent most of my adult
life abroad, mostly in Japan, with multiple stints
in France for grad school.
How did you get involved with theater?
I somehow stumbled into a musical
theater troupe in high school,
which I absolutely loved. It
was a typical case of theater
becoming the “safe
space” for a gangly,
effeminate boy who
hated sports. In university
I studied classical
voice, and for a while
thought I was going to
be an opera singer … but
I lacked discipline. Fortunately,
opera turned me on
to foreign languages and literature,
which have now become a day
job that allows plenty of time for me to scratch
my lingering theatrical itch as a performer and
director.
What about The Language Archive drew you
to directing it?
I’m a huge fan of Julia Cho’s writing and have
been in love with this award-winning script since
I first read it nearly five years ago. Cho is a young
writer known for tackling some pretty serious
issues in her plays, but always with a unique
voice that manages to home in on moments of
humor and even lightness in the face of melancholy.
There’s a heartfelt, earnest sort of energy
radiating from the pages of a Julia Cho script that
is magical and quite captivating.
What about the themes of communication
and the expression of love resonates with
people?
They resonate because they’re
universal! They’re life! Who
among us has never been
misunderstood? Never
suffered a broken
heart? Never seen
a relationship go
sour? These are huge
themes that everyone
can recognize, that
have made for great
storytelling.
Photos by Rodger Sonomura
The Tokyo international
theater community comprises
people of various cultural and linguistic
backgrounds. How does that contribute to
this production?
It’s true that we have a very multilingual, multicultural
cast and crew: nearly a dozen different
nationalities! While rather typical for a TIP
production, such diversity has been useful in
helping bring this particular show from “page
to stage,” in that we are all attuned to issues
of language and communication—not to mention
miscommunication!—in a way that a more
homogenous group of artists might not be.
What has been the most rewarding aspect of
directing this production so far?
The most rewarding aspect has been working
with a cast of actors whom I love and respect
very much. There are some incredibly talented
people on that stage! I only hope the experience
has been equally gratifying for them.
What do you hope audiences take away from
the show?
As sappy as it sounds, I sort of hope audiences
leave the show wanting to tell their loved ones
how they feel. Sometimes all we have are
words. Sometimes that’s enough.
Finally, in your own words—and to turn the
play’s tagline back to you: how many ways can
you say “love”?
Ah, but therein lies the secret of the tagline! “How
do you say love?” can mean many things, depending
on one’s tone of voice and which word one
chooses to emphasize. As a matter of fact, we’ve
spent a huge amount of time in rehearsal pulling
apart this seemingly simple little phrase. How
do we say love? I encourage everyone to come
see the show and count the ways!
Tokyo International Players present the Japan
premiere of The Language Archive. Feb 25-28,
various times. Nakano Pocket Square, 3-22-8
Nakano, Nakano-ku. Nakano. www.tokyoplayers.org
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