And so a simple desire to study more about Noh became a far deeper exploration.  Two fundamental questions arose.  How can one transfer methods and techniques to other cultures?  How can traditional art forms be relevant to a modern audience?

I returned to the National Noh Theatre to see a production of Othello by Theatre Project Si.  The performers were made up of Kyogen actors and opera singers and there was a hip drum and a trumpet.  It was interesting to see the clash of styles; the sound of the trumpet with the drum, the kimonos with modern dress, the naturalistic acting with the rituals of Noh.  There were even great contrasts within the modern influences such as Italian opera next to American jazz.  It seems that the Japanese are very good at taking ideas and influences from other cultures and assimilating them into their own.  One need only look at Kanji, baseball and Buddhism to see that much of Japanese culture has come from elsewhere.  I went to watch a rehearsal of Ninagawa’s next play, My Night at Andro’s with Saitama Gold Theatre.  His work is characterized by using many different influences and this play was no different where Portuguese, Chekhov, modern and classical music vied together with certain Japanese influences.  The problem that modern Japanese theatre seems to have is that it is in danger of either copying traditional Western theatre or simply recreating its own traditional forms.  Their response to this seems to be to throw a number of conflicting and varied elements together without the need for consistency.  This Othello had done exactly that but, for me, it was incomplete.  Many of the modern elements felt like pastiche and it seemed that the purity of the Noh stage was being defiled.  I believe that it is important, particularly when borrowing very directly from another culture or style, that you still aim to create your own new modern style from out of the influences used.  This is what Britten was very careful to do when writing Curlew River.

I believe Zeami has an answer for how to borrow from other cultures.  In Style and the Flower he refers to function (yo) and substance (tai).  If substance is a flower then function is the scent.  When learning from a performance, one should try to imitate the substance and not copy the function.  In other words, when borrowing from other cultures or styles, one should take the underlying essence and not simply the aesthetic or effect.

FWW

Final Installment- Part 6: The Last Stretch (Previous Installment- Part 4:The Art of Banraku and Kabuki)

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