Kabuki in the west

Leave it to the bawds and the knaves to take a highly sophisticated theatre style and make it their own. You can see the remnants of the traditional Noh theatre in Kabuki. Some differences are the curtain and walkways (hanamichi) that leads out through the audience opposed to Noh’s walkway that ran up the top of stage right leading to the makeup room.

One thing that is surprising is that Kabuki was started by a woman in the 17th century by the name of Okuni. Eventually just like Shakespeare, men were the only ones allowed to perform and young attractive boys and women were cut from the list of performers because the audience would tend to “commune” with the actors. The Shogunate started to clamp down on the prostitution and forced most groups to perform more traditional fair. I find this very fascinating because almost all of the work we studied prior to this date was always performed by men. Yoruba ritual is rich with female performers and I would find it very difficult to understand it with only men performers.

Having to read an English translation of Kanjincho built and designed for English speaking actors and then seeing a traditional performance of it gives a whole new level of artistry to the art form. What we western performers get and perform is a mere fraction of what is entailed in performing Kabuki. The translators do a good job at giving you a lot of what is needed in the performance, but without the actual language, traditional space, true musicians and singers I believe our performances pale in comparison. What we bring to the table is a small understanding of the piece. Their actors train for years perfecting gestures, lines, facial expressions, costume work and props. An American production in a general theatre or educational theatre only allows a short time for rehearsals and you may find a specialist who could lead you but you are far from a Kabuki performer. Western performances of Kabuki are mere reflections of a difficult and intricate art form. We do it merely for entertainment and to sometimes put a spin on something old and in need of something fresh.

For example, my senior year in College we performed a Kabuki version of the Emperor’s New Clothes. I thought that was everything you needed to know about it. Our costumes were all handmade, we had the traditional characters including the stage hands, and we even had music. However, the music was canned and we did not have much singing or traditional movement. When it was all said and done, I thought it was a wonderful production, but now some 12 years later and after seeing true Kabuki performers our work definitely paled in comparison.