Photo courtesy of Lincoln Center Festival.
Last evening (Thursday July 14) three additional entries from the classical Noh canon.
Before we get to that, may I just announce my lifelong fascination with curtains, from the mod fiberglass curtains that masked the dreary outside of the apartment in which we grew up to the graceful dance performed by the “great golden curtain” of the Metropolitan, but nothing has prepared me for the Noh curtain that marks the exit off the bridge — that is to say the transition from backstage to onstage in this traditional Noh stage that has been erected at the Rose Theatre. Crossing a bridge — we learn in last night’s last offering, “The Stone Bridge” — is an experience of becoming enlightened. In Noh, the transition from offstage to onstage is effected through the bridge, and the curtain marks the beginning of this enlightenment. The Kanze Noh curtain somehow rises vertically and then horizontally. There are two distinct movements — vertical followed by horizontal. How is this done? If there were a vertical pulley, it would interfere with the horizontal movement. It may be that the vertical pulley itself is whisked horizontally.
The first offering, “Sumida River,” has a bit of an O Henry story feel to it, being a mother searching for her kidnapped son overhearing a stranger relating the tragic circumstances of the boy’s death. The non-mimetic Noh style (see my first night blog entry below) perfectly contrasted with the overwhelming pathos of the events being chanted and danced. As against that, the short comedic “Fake Sculptor” had an almost sketch comedy feel to it, a brilliant if one-idea encounter between an urban con artist impersonating his own sculpture and a rustic. The final piece, “The Stone Bridge,” had virtually no narrative at all, just pure theatre. A pilgrim waits before a difficult stone bridge, waiting for a miracle. Enter four lions clad in red mane and shimmering gold, who perform a feral, foot-stomping, head waving ode to joy of being alive at the climax of the food chain.
If the original Globe Theatre together with its original 16th century actors had been transported to Lincoln Center this summer to perform Shakespeare’s masterpieces, it would be a bit like the tremendous achievement of the Lincoln Center Festival in bring the Kanze Noh Theatre — with its 26th generation master — to New York this July