Get the latest gossip
Sumo Is a Subculture Story That Goes Big
The backstage dynamics of an ancient, extremely ritualized sport.
Oyakata are traditionally retired wrestlers who’ve moved into the position of coaches and trainers, though, as Dring’s characters point out, many leave the actual training to their deputies while they live the ritzier managerial life of wining, dining, and drafting prospective winners. And, at the same time, the play itself is attempting to straddle two horses and wobbling in the process: It can’t quite figure out whether it wants Akio’s complaining to be the signifier of his immaturity — his lack of humility and disregard for the kind of spiritual wisdom that So offers when he says, “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. More compelling is the play’s main subplot, which follows the relationship between Fumio (Red Concepción), a middle-ranking wrestler at the heya, and Ren (an imposing Ahmad Kamal), the hardest worker in the stable, top in the rankings underneath Mitsuo and an infinitely more humane soul.
Or read this on VULTURE