Kyoto performance reviews

--> Not I transl. and dir. by Kimura Yusuke at the Theatre Lumen, Kyoto May 30 2019 http://yusuke-kimura.net/ Samuel Beckett’s Not I is a surreal horror of a one-woman show. A Woman’s mouth only is seen, high above the stage, absurdly higher than if she were standing, framed in spotlight. As the light fades in, the sounds of her gasping, whispering, urgent voice is heard before the lights fade up on the mouth, lips painted brightly, teeth, tongue; even her throat is visible in a kind of red-grey chiaroscuro. She is speaking to herself, a stung creature, like the ox-sister Io in Euripides’ Prometheus . Words spill from her unwanted, a verbal diarrhea, before she thinks them, allowing us to see her forming the words and reacting to them in real time, reversing normal order. Each impulse, each fragment, amended or doubled-back upon, rejected or extended—returns her to a continuous loop, recurring inside her brain but vocalized for us. A silent, lonely woman su...

--> New noh: Dzadi-Forefather’s Eve　 祖霊祭 Spirits of Poland and Korea come to a Japanese temple   file:///Users/jonahsalz/Dropbox/190521-190521p.pdf 　　Leaflet can be seen here This Polish Japanese coproduction could loosely be described as “new noh”, with buyo, noh, and even awaodori summer folk-dance included. Just three actors, accompanied by violin, hurdy-gurdy, Romanian flute, and folk-song told the tale, the musicians and actors performing role of chorus and cheerleader. Two dancers, one Japanese, the other Polish, and a Polish actor made up the cast. The script written by Jacoba Rodowicz-Czechowska featured three acts. The first two drawn from Romantic poet and playwright Adam Mickiewicz’s 19 th century masterwork Forefather’s Eve , Pt. 2 and 4. The last included the climax of the physician/playwright Tada Tomio’s play “A prayer for the grudge.” If I understand the story correctly—there was no summary in the program, and the first two acts were e...

--> Antibodies’ Collective (Kyoto) with Tactile Bosch (UK) May 25 th 2019 Seibu Kodo Kyodai Kyoto The Antiodies Collective( http://antibo.org/  ) created an installation performance piece of the post-Fukushima era took place in Kyoto, creating a retro- and post-modern atmosphere of a tangible alien planet. Stepping into Kyoto University Seibu Kodo   was a time-slip of its own. This a venerable space near the French and Italian Institutes adjacent to Kyoto University was originally a central performance space, part of the student union, but has fallen into disuse, a puddly,sloppy parking lot and debris surrounding the old structure. But inside it is magic: high ceilings, with a stadium-sized concrete and dirt floor, sloping downward. It has hosted all sorts of vanguard troupes since the 1960s, and continues to be the occasional meeting homeground for old hippies and new artists. The Antibodies Collective, performed on Inushima in the Inland Sea last y...