Kaidan Chibusa No Enoki

Lincoln center festival is here!

I was very fortunate to get really good seats from a friend. Thanks MM! This was our view!!

Ticket and playbill.

Kaidan Chibusa No Enoki means “The ghost tale of the wet nurse tree.” The title really doesn’t give you much details and leaves you wondering, “What exactly do they mean by that?” It is performed by the famous Heisei Nakaumra-za which is a famous kabuki troupe dating back from the 1600’s. Kabuki originated from inspiration of puppet shows which can explain part of the stylized gestures, the painted faces and even the movements. Of course that is very cruelly put; to describe a kabuki show is difficult, there are so many subtleties involved such as facial expressions, enunciation of words, exaggerated or very slight gestures, light humor, one really has to be there to see and experience it.

On a side note, recently my friend and I were fortunate enough to be able to watch Mizoguchi’s “The story of the Last Chrysanthemums.” The movie is about a kabuki actor who has a hefty family name to carry since his family is famous and well respected in the Kabuki world. His acting is bad in the beginning; he shows a lack of talent but receives important roles just because of his family name. At one point, he is disowned by his family because he falls in love with a strong willed and honest commoner who is his step mother’s servant. After being disowned, he struggles as an actor since life of a kabuki actor is not easy and finding a role is difficult; poverty is also the norm. Through this experience, he goes from being an amateur kabuki actor to becoming a great one. The story is very moving; his wife Otoku is the best woman in the world. I don’t want to ruin the movie, but I have to admit, I shed a few tears!

Anyway, what I learned from the movie, made me appreciate the play a lot more. Nothing is left to chance- the Onnagata, who is the female role of the play, is also played by men- it’s essentially an all male play. In the beginning, you would wonder if the voice may be a bit weird; but no worries, since the onnagata is so well trained, the voice blends in and becomes an integral part of the play. His gestures are so natural and elegant, to the state of being very refined, you forget it’s a guy in a kimono. He is probably more womanly than me.

Nakamura Kankuro is very impressive in this kabuki play as he plays three very different roles; the gentle and trusting artist, Shigenobu, the coward but kind hearted Shosuke and the greedy tattooed villain Sanji. Besides admiring his lightning fast pace at changing attires, I also admire his ability to change roles just as he switched clothing. With the same face, he could look so different through exaggerated countenance, control of voice- volume, pitch and sound, actions and gestures. His expressions during the fight scenes with the villain Namie look just like a classic Japanese woodblock painting.

The story is about villains, Namie and Sanji, who have teamed up previously to steal 2000 gold pieces from a coffer; through shock and disgrace, the protector of the coffer dies. The coffer protector’s son seeks to avenge the death of his father. Namie also wants to avenge the death of his father who is killed by the famous artist Shigenobu (Shigenobu was a samurai before he decides to be an artist). One day, at the teahouse, Shigenobu’s wife, Oseki, and child are harassed by two punks; Namie saves them, earning the trust of Shigenobu and Oseki.

Namie becomes an apprentice of Shigenobu; with the 2000 gold pieces he has previously stolen, he is able to make people like him by “giving” them money. As Shigenobu goes to a temple for a commissioned painting, Namie makes his real intentions be known to the wife; he wants Oseki for himself. She declines but he threatens to kill the baby. She has no choice but to relent.

The first part of the play is a bit slow paced because it is an entryway to the kabuki world. Once you take your first step to the kabuki world and get into it, you will be really into it and forget they are acting. There were two ladies who sat next to us left before the intermission, they probably didn’t know what they were missing out on!!

Building the tension of the story, the next scene is by the water where the servant, Shosuke, under the threats of Namie, invites Shigenobu, the artist, to the bridge near the water. Namie kills Shigenobu in this scene and makes the reluctant Shosuke stab Shigenobu as well. What is so amazing about this scene is, Nakumura Kankuro is playing 3 roles at the same time, how he pulled it off, I could not explain. Maybe something to do with the attire and the complicated simplicity that folds and unfolds. At the end of this scene you see Sanji fighting Namie in the dark, Namie inadvertently dropping his personal namesake object in the fight and of course, our witty villain, Sanji picks it up and uses it to threaten him.

Next few scenes, involves the ghost of Shigenobu who comes back to finish his incompeletd painting, and saves his son when Shosuke is close to drowning him because Shosuke feels like he could not do anything for the child and is threatened by Namie. During this scene, the ghost of Shigenobu helps kill Sanji who was trying to kill Shosuke and Mayotaro. It’s amazing how Nakumura Kankuro could perform as Sanji and Shosuke in the same scene as they fight and attack each other.

The reason for the title is clear at the end of the play; the tree is what nursed the baby, Mayotaro to health as he and Shosuke run away from Namie. It is also a point of coincidence to meet Namie, 9 years later, as he seeks milk for his child since his wife is not able to provide it. The 3 unlikely heroes defeats Namie: Oseki’s cousin who is also coffer protector’s son, Mayotaro, the baby of Oseki and Shigenobu, and the faithful but coward servant, Shosuke. All is fair and it ends happily in its own way. The nurse tree is symbolic in many ways; it helps sustain the life of Mayotaro when he was young and it’s also the place of death for Namie. Life’s giver and killer.

Throughout the change of scenes, there were three comedians, bantering funny nonsense (example: to the audience: “Where are you from? Oh, you drove here?! Where did you park your car!). They made waiting for the change of scenes enjoyable. One of the most memorable moments is when the audience at the front orchestra had to put on raincoats on; the actors on stage splashed water at them playfully since they had a manmade waterfall on stage! How cool is that!!

I think kabuki plays depict both tragedy and comedy at the same time. There are moments when it’s so ridiculous it makes you laugh and there are moments when you feel pain. I laughed when Shousuke was attacking Namie with a wooden broom and felt sympathy for the orphaned boy and Oseki, the mother who had to give the boy away due to circumstances. It is definitely an eye opening experience. We know the play had been modernized because of the speech and dialogues. It is important for traditions to have the essences of traditional elements but also the fluidity of the time so people can relate and understand it as the art form it is intended for; at the end of the day, Kabuki play is a form of entertainment and offers a glimpse of life we might have otherwise amiss in history books or life in general.

Definitely see it if you have a chance. It ends 7/12.

Liselotte in May

Entering the Theater for the New City on 1st avenue, you think of a building that needs serious maintenance and renovation. Since, performing art is underrated and as tourists flock to Broadway, the theater’s wear and tears is a reminder of the embrace of mainstream and the abandonment of indie plays which is surviving on government funds and donations. From the bare walls, rancid smell of old buildings, I wasn’t really expecting much. Especially when I got the black and white playbill, saw the small stage set, and the seats that did not fill up although there weren’t many of them.

Liselotte in May is a Hungarian play written by Zsolt Pozsgai, the actors, directors and producers are also Hungarian. It is a “tragicomedy” about Liselotte, woman in her 30’s who inherited a flat at 10 Bleecker street from a old lady who she had looked after for the past decade. She had lived without friends and lovers for the last ten years; before she starts her job as a nurse in June, she wants to find a husband of whom she could share her life with. Her expectations are not high for the mate she wants to spend the rest of her life with in this lovely apartment.

First person she met is a classmate whose wife had just passed away. She cooks for him, they fall in love, it’s the first date, he chokes on fish (sounds ridiculous but imagine the death of someone you just fall in love with!). Reluctant to give up, she places an ad on newspaper for a husband, meets a nervous accountant, falls in love, almost got intimate, and he passes away from excitement. Still determined to find someone to spend the rest of her life with, she meets the nephew of the lady she had nursed, he’s a paranoid hipster- fearing the end of the world, global warming, and although they liked each other, you can see that she fears him, it was out of desperation she clings onto him, and sadly, he had to prove there is no reason to live and jumps off from the flat. Liselotte slowly loses it, with a room of disarray, she starts to drink. A plumber goes to fix her leaks, she is drunk, desperate, seduces and dances with him, in euphoria as they dance, they stumble, breaks the lamp she likes, in an attempt to fix it, he electrocutes himself and dies.

Low expectations turn to desperation since she still fails to find someone. All hell lets loose and she is close to dementia and hallucination. You are not sure if the poet who she has a relationship with is real or not as they recite the poems he writes, as he tells of the story of how he got admitted to asylum. He jumps out the window to prove the world is not real and all he has- is his poetry. Another tragedy befalls.

In her most desperate attempt, she brings a hobo home and tries to shape him to be the one. Humor mixed with sadness, of course, as the viewer can easily perceive, this will most definitely not work. Hobo goes through her drawers as she gets the bath ready, when she comes out, he is uncontrollable and attempts to stab her with a knife, they struggle, she kills him inadvertently.

The end of the play, our tragic hero is with a faceless man who hides behind his hat. She has her belongings packed in a leather trunk and asks the man to help her carry it. After an intense dialogue of nostalgia and emotions, they sit in front of the audience with their backs facing us, as though they were watching her life pass by with us.

The story is an exaggeration of reality; an emphasis on how loneliness can change into desperation; how we want a little piece of what we perceive to be happiness only to find it so difficult to attain, so meaningless at the end. It’s a melodrama presented in a comedic form. Liselotte is the hopefulness we cling onto to be happy, to be meaningful, to fit into society as we reach a certain age, to not be alone and to have a companion.

Chris Kardos is the actor who performs all the male roles in the play; his ability to be versatile and his control of his voice and accent is very amazing. The chemistry between the two leads (who are also the only actors in this play) is very convincing. Love the lighting to create atmosphere and mood along with the occasional tragically upbeat music is a wonderful complement to the play. Even though it’s a low production play, I was amazed at the quality of play you can see for $15. It was sad to see the actors a bit shy as audiences had not filled the whole theater. Go watch it if you have a chance! Still running till Sept.