By: Yasmin Vejs Simsek, Staff Writer
What the Buddha Never Taught is advertised as a “rock opera” and is based on the book with the same name by Tim Ward. Playing at Jericho Arts Centre until July 10, this show was not what I expected. I was imagining something like We Will Rock You meets Waiting for Godot and my anticipated version might have turned out more thrilling than the actual “rock opera” written by UVIC professor Martin T. Adam.
The story begins with characters Tim and Jim arriving at a monastery in Thailand, where they expect to “find themselves” in one way or another. They meet like-minded people and are thrown into the lifestyle of the monks who reside there permanently. But that is about it as far as the storyline goes, with no inclination towards a traditional narrative arc or similar story arcs. Written with the intention of celebrating the “western encounter with Buddhism,” it came across as white people pointing out loopholes in the religion and trying to be lighthearted and funny while doing so. Rather than a respectful encounter, the play delivered tired western ethnocentric narratives.
What the Buddha Never Taught didn’t keep the audience on their toes, with audience members calling it slow in the interval. It was actually a perfect example of why to “show, not tell,” as everything that Buddha never taught was verbally pointed out in most conversations throughout the performance. This juxtaposes one of the central teachings of Buddhism — to learn the importance of silence and stillness in order to discover inner peace.
When I attend musical theatre performances, I expect the songs to further or enhance the story in a meaningful way. The songs in this show seemed randomly plopped in and was more a fun, musical interlude than a necessary part of the story. There were also very few rock aspects in the music, with maybe two or three songs I would identify as rock and even fewer opera aspects, with zero opera songs. It would have been better to leave it as What the Buddha Never Taught — The Musical to establish appropriate expectations for the score.
My biggest problem, however, was not with the music. As I flicked through the programme before the start of the show, I quickly noticed that out of the nine cast members, there was only one woman and one visible person of colour — who happened to be the same person. It screamed tokenism and realizing just how small her part was only made that feeling stronger. Upon hearing the title of the show, I did not expect to spend two and a half hours on a sunny Sunday, watching white men gather around and joke about one of the widely practiced religions of the world. There is no shortage of western/white voices drowning out the voices of BIPOC cultures and religions. We don’t want to see this repeated anymore, even when posed as a revolutionary or original thought.
When all that has been said, I don’t believe any of this was caused by this particular production of the show. I think the problem started from the book it was based on, published in the 1990s. In a review of the book, local author Michelle Barker wrote, “I felt like much of his criticism was in fact cultural, aimed at a society that he is not from and perhaps doesn’t understand all that well.” Although Barker identified that the book brought up interesting questions about the life of monks, she said most of it sounded like a judgemental monologue rather than a respectful observation.
I think the problem lies in creating a piece of art that does not consider representation or nuance — especially when it could so easily have been much more diverse, being set in Thailand and all. Not only do I expect casts that are true to representation in 2022, I also expect a level of respect for other cultures as well as careful avoidance of cultural appropriation and thoughtful critique. I believe this to be the bare minimum, which I do not feel this piece delivered. I don’t think theatre like that has a place in our century and I believe you have a social responsibility when you put art into the world to be perceived by the masses.
