It was a bit rainy on Saturday and the "Dancing Elvises" were not in front of the park, so what's a girl to do???? Go KABUKI!!!!
I went over to Kabuki-za, Tokyo's premiere Kabuki Theater, for performance of this traditional artform. Apparently, these things go on for hours. Thankfully, they are broken up into small plays for folks that don't have a day and evening to spend at Kabuki. I bought a ticket for a 1 1/2 hour set and went and "set" myself down.
My first impression of Kabuki was that "Someone has slammed the cat's tail in the door. Please put that cat out of its misery..." And, to make matters worse,the howling cat is accompanied by a guy on an out of tune metal-stringed guitar that can only play 3 notes.....Help!!!! I've still got an hour and 29 minutes to go!!!!
OK, that is probably what some folks say about Opera and probably what our parents said about Heavy Metal rock concerts. So I slapped myself on the face a few times and decided to see what was really happening on stage....
Kabuki was, of course, developed before the days of microphones. The characters depend upon other measures to get their point across to the audience. First of all, they have perfected the art of make-up. The faces have a white base of rice powder with greatly exaggerated, colorful facial expressions (Think of "Kiss," live in concert.) The colors used give a clue as to the role of the actor. Red is for passion, heroism, and other positve traits. Blue or black represent villainy, jealousy, and bad guys. Green is supernatural and purple is for nobility. The other clue to the personaliy is his "mie," a pose that a particular actor assumes to establish his character. (If you are on Interstate 35 and see someone flipping other drivers off, that is probably his "mie.") In addition, the acting is melodramatic to the extreme. There is no problem figuring out who's who.
The Kabuki that I attended was the story of a shy artist who was going to have to commit Hari-Kari (suicide) because he was such a failure. He is fortunately, or unfortunately, married to a VERY talkative wife who goes to plead his case before the local nobility (think Purple Face). Alas, there is no hope. He's just a lousy artist. At that point there is a great dance number performed by a character with a sword, representing the artist's upcoming demise. He was dancing in cotton shoes so there was a musician on the side who hit a board on the stage - to mimic the sound of the dancer's steps on the road. This was very cool.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch ... there has been a lot happening on the stage itself. The Japanese high-tech stages date back to the 18th. century and are quite elaborate. From the set, there are walkways that extend out into the audience - for dramatic entrances and exits. There are also trap doors, revolving sets, and wires - in the event that someone needs to fly (Mary Martin in Peter Pan probably got her idea from Kabuki). There are also these little mime-guys in black who are supposed to be invisible. They come out and move things; but, their most important job takes place when an actor suddenly unmasks his true personality. They rush out on stage and change the actors costume to match the new personality revelation.
But I digress ... back to the story.... When faced with his death, the artist becomes inspired (some of us only perform under stress). He creates a work of art that brings everyone on stage to tears. There is LOTS of crying and sobbing going on. In fact, this crying and sobbing goes on and on and on. Maybe they forgot their lines or something. For the grand finale, the little mime-guys dressed in black come out and change the artist's costume - for the artist is now transformed by his brush with death and his talent is finally recognized. This was true drama, the story of us all - we're not quite good enough - but death is facing us so we scurry to produce our artwork - and rejoice at our ultimate triumph when little mime-guys come to change our clothes in public. I'm not sure how that last part fits in....
All in all, it was a most interesting afternoon and, despite my tongue in cheek comments, I was extremely impressed with the talent of the actors, dancers, and musicians. Even in a foreign language the passion of the story rang true.
Most importantly, after meditating upon the nature of Kabuki, I was suddenly struck with a GREAT idea for applying Kabuki theater in the USA. This would be a terrific format for Presidential Election Debates! Candidates would be required to have their faces painted so that we could have color-coded clues about their personalities and true agendas. The trap doors would help us drop pesky people from the debate floor. And, best of all, we would have the little mime-guys in black rush out and change the candidates clothes when their true natures begin to show. Because some of the candidates might be changing clothes as often as a 98 pound model in a Paris fashion show, it could be very entertaining. I'll guarantee that the American public would tune-in enmasse for the Kabuki Kampaigns. Let's go KABUKI!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment