'Kyogen' reviews Nomura in reviews recent Mansaku-no-kai reviews more Renee Renouf reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months)

Arriving June 2, six masked actors enveloped in shapeless black were cavorting around the stage before the actual performance began. Such masks and garments derive from an era when performances required methods to convey to the audience a quality necessitated by time of day and location: the noh stage was frequently out of doors and connected to temple grounds. Kyogen as a theatrical form served the noh as a respite in the same manner comedy accomplished relief for Greek tragedy. As in Greek, Elizabethan and Kathakali practices, kyogen has been an all male perogative. In this production the sisters Okuma and Okiku were performed without masks.

Taking the plot from Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, itself derivative, we had a black island and a white island replacing Syracuse and Ephesus, Taro-kaja and Ishinosuke replaced Dromio and Antipholus, twin servant and master respectively. Satoshi Tsukitaku and Hitoshi Sakurai were the flautist and drummer, essential emphasis for the seamless exposition of conflict, confusion, contradiction, clarification and conclusion. Yasunnari Takahashi wrote the adaptation utilizing traditional kyogen Japanese language style, bridged by the use of an overhead translation panel above the balcony where transition scenes were played.

What I found captivating, even endearing, about the production was visual, visceral, generational. Remarkable textile patterns juxtaposed against textile patterns - squares, circles, simulated or genuine ikat, cottons, silks and floral brocade - enlivened the traditional kosude, a kimono form; the hakamas and trousers; and the katagimu, a wide-lapel covering which tucks into the hakama in front. (The origins can be seen on Wei Dynasty Buddhist carvings.) It would be fascinating to learn what dictates textile pattern selections, and the meaning of the calligraphy written on the tab, like a token sporran, hanging from the belt. I have never seen shoddy cheap costumes in any production originating from Japan; they either do it right or don’t do it at all.

Stage logistics included three entrances; a large center curtain operated in the traditional noh-kyogen style, and smaller entrances on either side which represented the black and white islands - quite helpful when each twin was played by the same actor.

Experts could enlighten us about Shakespearean costumes for Naosuke (Egeon) the captive father doomed to be beheaded. As portrayed by Mannosuke Nomura, kneeling in an elegant beige brocade kosude, executing understated gestures of grieving and despair, his garment was virtually untouched by the probable conditions in his cell. The black figures lurked in pairs of three, at times coalescing behind Naosuke as he related the story of the twins, forming perfect painterly tableaux. Throughout the drama, the groupings, holding the position while either the flute or drum, sometimes both sounded insistently and in the shrill upper aural reaches, spoke to choreographic awareness.

Visceral qualities emanated largely from Mansai Nomura when he literally thumped his body onto the stage, cross-legged, bounded or limped out under a curtain or crumpled under the thrashings of the two masters His lithe and slender body, shock of unruly hair and perpetual gaze of amazement accented his skillful body language. The distinctive little rushing movement of some entrances created further dance elements, as well as the distinctive kyogen walking pattern. The whosh-like nature of the curtains added to the movement exclamations.

Earlier I saw Mansai’s five-year old son make his debut in Sambaso, a kyogen play featuring a small child in the role of a monkey whose hide an aging landowner wants for his quiver cover. Mansaku Nomura, playing the landowner beguiled by the monkey into forgetting his desire, had performed it himself as a child; doubtless Mansai did as well. First Mansai’s uncle and later Ryota Nomura, his poised, near-adolescent nephew, as the duke comprised another such special event. Adding to the familial longevity the youthful members in the cast are further reassurance that the fate of kyogen is safe for at least another three decades. One wishes such an augury for other theatrical forms.