Lisa Sanaye Dring’s ‘Sumo’ brings Japan’s national sport to the stage in NY premiere

Ma-Yi Theater Company and The Public Theater are set to bring the intense world of sumo wrestling to the stage with the New York premiere of Lisa Sanaye Dring’s “Sumo” this month. Directed by Obie Award winner Ralph B. Peña, the play delves into the lives of six wrestlers navigating tradition, ambition, and personal demons within an elite sumo training facility in Tokyo. The cast features Kris Bona, Red Concepción, Michael Hisamoto, Ahmad Kamal, Earl T. Kim, David Shih, Scott Keiji Takeda, Paco Tolson and Viet Vo, with live taiko drumming by Shih-Wei Wu.

In anticipation of the play’s opening at the Anspacher Theater on Feb. 20 and its official opening on March 5, The Rebel Yellow spoke with the creative team about the process of bringing sumo to the stage and the powerful themes of the play.

Q: What inspired you to write “Sumo,” and what was your journey like in researching and crafting this story?

A: I saw sumo in Japan before I even considered myself a writer, and I was so taken by the sport and its beauty. It feels completely different from any sport I know of in the States — it has ritual, history and honor embedded into every layer, from training to tournaments. When I saw it, I was going through a moment of deep grief, and in many ways, it woke me up. The sport was so filled with energy and life that it connected me to an awareness of myself as part of a whole. In that way, it is very much a ritual.

Researching and crafting the story has been a whole thing! I read books, talked to wrestlers and watched documentaries, but I learned so much about this from being in the rehearsal room and collectively learning with our creative team. James Yaegashi, our cultural consultant, has been essential in guiding us … I wrote this play partially to understand and connect more deeply with masculinity. And it’s not the writing that did that for me, but being around these incredible artists and actors, seeing how they share their humanity with the piece.

Q: The play explores themes of identity, belonging and cultural clashes. How did your own experiences influence the development of these themes in the play?

A: Of course, I’m all over this play! I think, in our modern American society, alienation is a part of associating with any identity — so while this show is about belonging, it is also about that line that exists between belonging and not belonging, and how we all walk that tightrope of a line constantly. I live with a lot of different cultural identities inside me, but it is really beautiful to connect with this Japanese story and embed myself into the culture in this deep way. I am hafu Yonsei and that half of my family was in many ways the only family I knew.

Q: What message or experience do you hope audiences take away from “Sumo” after watching it?

A: That is a tricky question! I hope that the text and production is strong enough that people leave the theater with their own unique takeaways. As a writer, I want to leave space for the audience’s interpretation — if I held too tightly onto its meaning, or could say it succinctly, in some ways I wouldn’t need a whole play to talk about what we are talking about. That being said, I hope that people leave the theater feeling more alive.

Q: What drew you to Lisa Sanaye Dring’s “Sumo,” and what resonated with you most about the story?

A: Initially, I was challenged by the complexity of the story. It was multi-layered with the physical aspects of the sport and the spiritual origins of sumo. Lisa has written a story that contains both of these elements simultaneously, and I had no idea how this was even possible to do on stage. That was what first drew me to “Sumo.” Once I accepted the challenge and took a deep dive into the world of sumo, I was struck by the deeply human characters Lisa created and how much I cared about each one of them. It’s rare to find a play that gives each of its characters a clear and compelling arc. That’s probably what resonates with me the most. “Sumo” is about flawed people doing their best to get as close to god-like as possible.

Q: What unique challenges and rewards did you encounter while directing a play that delves into the world of sumo, a sport not often explored in Western theater?

A: The biggest challenge in directing a play like “Sumo” is finding the physical language of the play. For one thing, you have to find actors who can inhabit these characters, not just in terms of body type, but more importantly, the physical requirements of sumo wrestling. We thought of using stylized movement for the fights, but that felt like a cop-out, so we asked our cast to train every day to learn how to lower their centers of gravity and slam into each other without ending up in the emergency room. This is no small task. We also had to be very mindful of honoring Japanese culture and representing this ancient sport as authentically as possible. We’re lucky to have James Yaegashi and Chelsea Pace collaborating on the fights.

There are many hurdles to scale, for sure, but there are also many rewards. The biggest for me is introducing the work of Lisa Sanaye Dring to New York audiences and bringing a play about sumo to the stage. No one has seen anything like this before.

Q: From your perspective, how does “Sumo” portray the sport and culture of sumo and what nuances do you hope audiences will gain a deeper understanding of through this production?

A: “Sumo” very effectively captures the life of men who are trying to make a life in sumo, which is the 国技 or “national art” of Japan. Sumo is no mere sport, but a way of life in which men sacrifice everything and dedicate themselves to sumo. They leave their family, eat, sleep, and train under the same roof with their fellow rikishi (wrestlers)—most of them for their entire career. The closest equivalent the Western experience has is that of a monk joining a monastery. This analogy is not far off, as sumo is also deeply tied to the mythology and spiritual practice of Shinto, the native Japanese religion. I think our production captures this uniquely Japanese world and the juxtaposition of cost/reward, joys/sorrows, community/loneliness that comes with it. Audiences will see something they probably have never seen before, with large Asian men literally bumping up against each other on stage to become something larger than life. As the audience enters this world of sumo, I hope they come away with perhaps a different point of reference for thinking about the body, about strength, about masculinity, and about devotion.

Q: What were some of the key considerations and challenges in bringing the world of sumo to life on stage authentically and respectfully?

A: The biggest challenge for me is to lead the actors into inhabiting the lower part of their body. Specifically, their 腹 (“hara”) or physical center. In the West, physical strength is often thought of as a reverse triangle, with a muscular upper body being the focus. In the East, however, strength is considered to dwell in one’s center and, thus, more of a regular triangle (the buddha statues are a good example). Visually, this is very clearly manifested in the difference between rikishi in Japan versus wrestlers who do sumo as a sport in the West. So, in order to get the actors to move more out of their lower body and approximate the physicality of rikishi in Õzumo (pinnacle of the national art of Japan), we dedicated a good portion of early rehearsal time for the actors to practice basic movements based on the manual published by the Japan Sumo Association.

We also spent an extensive time getting the actors used to physical fight “vocabulary” that is very different from Western stage combat physicality. We also adopted a practice of bowing into the rehearsal room when arriving and leaving the space to instill in the company a respect for space — like the sacredness of the “dohyo” in sumo. Another important aspect of my work has been to instill in the actors the sense of hierarchical relationships and the physical and spatial vocabulary that comes out of such relationships. Giving them a clear picture of the cultural “baseline” informs the dramatic choices they make in the story of when and how the norms are broken.

With a fascinating blend of physicality, culture and emotional depth, “Sumo” promises to be a theatrical experience like no other. Tickets are now available at PublicTheater.org.

This story is part of The Rebel Yellow Newsletter — a bold weekly newsletter from the creators of NextShark, reclaiming our stories and celebrating Asian American voices.

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