Featured photo: David Shih and Scott Keiji Takeda in SUMO at The Public Theater. Photo by Joan Marcus.
Sumo is brutal on the body. It consumes its wrestlers’ lives, dictating where they live, how they interact, and how they measure their own self-worth. Should they ever leave the sport, whether by choice or by mandate, they’re left to start from scratch when they reenter society. Why, then, do they do it? The wrestlers at the center of SUMO, a new play by Lisa Sanaye Dring, have the answers.
SUMO, now playing at The Public Theater off-Broadway, centers on Akio (Scott Keiji Takeda), a newcomer to the heya (or “stable”) where sumo wrestlers, known as rikishi, live and train together for their tournaments. At just 18 years old, Akio is eager to prove himself and rise through the ranks — but he quickly learns there’s much more to life as a rikishi than dominating in the ring.
There’s contending with Mitsuo (David Shih), the highest-ranked wrestler in the heya (just one tournament away from reaching the highest possible rank of Yokozuna) who lords over the men of the heya with an iron fist. There’s lesson upon lesson to learn from his fellow rikishi, including both practical skills, like how to take down an opponent with tsuppari (or palm strikes), and spiritual knowledge, like discovering sumo’s roots in Shinto tradition or that the spirit of sumo is — paradoxically and obviously — a woman. And above all, there’s Akio’s own ego and morality to grapple with. How far would he go to be the best? And in a field like sumo where religion and athleticism are fundamentally intertwined, is such a thing as “the best” even achievable?
Entertainment with an edge
Whether you’re into indie comics, groundbreaking music, or queer cinema, we’re here to keep you in the loop.
For Western audiences, the conventions of sumo as a cultural institution may be wholly unfamiliar. But SUMO embraces that it may be folks’ first introduction to the sport, providing all the exposition they could ask for without ever dragging or getting bogged down in its own explanations. Sumo’s origins as a Shinto ritual, the rules of its matches, and all of its other intricacies are easy to learn when mixed with the production’s sharp wit and innovative use of projections (designed by Hana S. Kim), which provide everything from vocab lessons to visual renderings of religious revelations.
And of course, there are the sumo matches themselves, co-choreographed by sumo consultant James Yaegashi and intimacy director Chelsea Pace. Watching the wrestling feels near indistinguishable from attending a real sporting event, edge-of-your-seat suspense and awe in the face of athleticism included.
But SUMO is far from a simple crash course in its titular sport. It’s reverent and transgressive in equal measure: playwright Dring acknowledges sumo’s conservative conventions in a note in the playbill, including that according to sumo’s rules, women aren’t allowed to so much as step into the ring. “I ask that the mythology which has created something as glorious as sumo — governed by the most powerful goddesses, exclusionary to so many, and fundamental to shaping the consciousness of my ancestors — make space for a new sacred imagination,” she writes, and her expertly crafted story accomplishes just that.
Despite being rooted in a millennium-old ritual, SUMO asks the 21st-century questions audiences no doubt will be wondering: How does sumo’s religious sanctity clash against the modern conventions of the sports world, from sponsors to spectacle to superstardom? After such all-encompassing training, what does a sumo wrestler’s life look like when they’re no longer able to enter the ring? And does a hypermasculine environment like sumo allow queerness to flourish (or even exist) among its wrestlers?
That last question is lived out in SUMO by rikishi Ren (Ahmad Kamal) and Fumio (Red Concepción), both of whom deliver standout performances. The pair’s love story in the heya is among the play’s most compelling, ultimately exposing the ways sumo culture fails any rikishi that don’t fit a perfect mold. That goes for the rest of SUMO’s ensemble cast, too: every character feels absolutely essential to the story, with each given a complete arc, unique relationship to sumo, and moment to shine, thanks in no small part to Dring’s beautifully written monologues.
There’s more to appreciate about SUMO than can reasonably fit in a single review — did we forget to mention the impromptu Paula Abdul dance number? To experience everything the play has to offer, from its high-stakes thrills to its endlessly rootable characters, audiences simply have to enter the ring. ♦
SUMO is now playing at The Public Theater through March 30. Tickets are available here.
Related
Idina Menzel’s long-awaited return to Broadway taps into the human experience — as long as you don’t mind the sap.
“How did we go from brat summer to fascist winter?” Lauter said before their performance. “That’s literally the plot of ‘Cabaret.’”
Sign up for the INTO newsletter and get your twice-weekly dose of stories that shape the queer experience, culture, and lifestyle.
