Kyoto performance reviews

--> Cinnamon by Teshigahara Saburo at Theatre X: Appreciating dance/narrative tracks May 4 th 2019 730p.m. show Teshigara Saburo performed a revival of Cinnamon based on a short story by Bruno Schulz (Street of crocodiles). The story depicts in direct, lyric manner an unusual evening for a young boy, sent home from church by his father. Getting lost when taking a shortcut home in the evening cold, he passes the small shops selling oddities he nicknames “cinnamon shops,” visits his school, where the presence of the principal lurks and strange specimens leap out of the cupboards and exhibits, then takes a horse and carriage galloping in the forest before returning home. There is wonderful mood evocation but little drama in this surreal fantasy, a gloomy, rumination on snow, night, fear, and sacrifice. What Teshigahara has done is express in dance a parallel story. A female (!) voice reads the tale, significantly edited, pausing from time to time. Two dancers ente...

“Traditionalizing” the expressionist body I attended one and two-thirds nights of the Second International Butoh Festival at the tiny Seedbox Theatre in southern Kyoto on May 1 and 2 (continuing through 4th). https://www.facebook.com/events/440822160008397/?notif_t=plan_user_invited&notif_id=1555766739292030 There I discovered that the performances doing “butoh” today stretch from old-style, white-powder writhers to conceptual performance artists with projections, to shamanistic healers. Each performance lasted about 15-20 minutes, seemingly in no particular order, with 12 performances per evening. The Festival is a testament to Katsura Kan, former Byakkosha member whose performances and teaching around the world have stimulated a number of satellite companies, a network of performers who attended this butoh summit in Kyoto during Golden Week. While particular performances stick out in my mind, they stimulated more generally my thinking about the state of the genre. * * Bu...

Re-viving the 1981 Noho Theatre Group play Act without words 1 May 6 2019   Kinokuniya Southern Theatre 新作 Classics https://www.kinokuniya.co.jp/c/label/20190125110000.html Although I've been studying it for nearly four decades, the nuances of Tradition in Japanese performing arts continue to fascinate me. In 1981, fresh to Japan and Kyoto, I happened to run into traditional kyogen comedian Shigeyama Akira, and we decided to form the Noho Theatre Group as a one-time only project. Since I didn’t know much Japanese nor he much Japanese, we decided to perform Samuel Beckett’s short mime masterpieces, Act without words 1 and 2 at the Studio Varie café-theatre near Kyoto University. 38 years later, we are reviving the first play, again with Akira performing and myself directing, this time with his son Sennojo (newly-renamed from Doji, whom I directed in his stage debut, age 4, as “Water” in Disney’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice )   producing it on a ...

Mono Theatre Group: Hana ni ra An un Monotonous family entertainment: Mar 27 2019     Rohm Theatre North Hall, 2pm   http://www.c-mono.com/link.htm Mono is directed by playwright Tsuchida Hideo 土田英生 , a continuation of a group begun at Ritsumeikan 30 years ago. The four fellow male actors he works with developed a style of fast-paced banter and sentimentality in slightly-futuristic fantasies and situation comedies. I last saw THIS IS HELL a decade or more ago, set in a waiting room that turned out to be limbo, at Osaka Hankyu Hep Hall and a few other shows. The plays all seem to be about nice guys in familiar situations, once a detective story, having verbal misunderstandings, taking things too far, following logical extensions that grow increasingly absurd. Although played for laughs, there are some serious journeys into family life, truth, and friendship. Tsuchida is also a successful screenwriter for film and TV, and briefly moved to Toky...