Einstein Noh

Though it was a Wednesday, today was actually noteworthy. In my Literature and Performance class we had a guest ‘speaker’ who was one of the people that we had watched perform Kyogen a couple weeks previous. I was surprised, not only by how young and good-looking he was, but by his near-perfect, unaccented English. The best part about this class period was that it wasn’t a lecture in the proper sense of the word. Instead, we cleared away all of the desks and chairs and he taught us several basic moves in the Kyogen repertoire, including laughing, crying, opening a door, and impersonating a chicken. All of these actions were extremely exaggerated (which is part of why they are so funny) and had an accompanying word/noise. I have to say that it’s the most fun that I have ever had in that class. After classes ended for the day, a small group of us had tickets to see the practice performance of a new Noh play called ‘The Hermit Isseki,’ which is actually about Einstein, only set in the Noh world. It was very contemporary, to my rather un-knowledgeable eyes, with the stage on the steps of one of the buildings of the Toji Buddhist temple and surrounded by a shallow pool of water, which reflected the lights oddly onto the building that formed a backdrop. In the place of the usual four pillars that hold up the roof of a Noh stage were four clear plastic cylinders with lights on the bottoms of them and filled partially with water. It was very beautifully presented, but I spent a good time feeling quite cold: I don’t fully understand why anyone would think that it was a good idea to stage a couple-hour play outside at night in October, even in an unseasonably warm year.
-When you read textbooks it sounds as though the conventions of Noh are set in stone, but they clearly are not so static as all that.
-Toji temple is beautiful by night, but usually closed.
-Practice Noh performances are about half as expensive as official Noh performances, and after some initial rehearsing they do a full costumed run through of the show.
-Nothing feels quite as good as a hot bath after sitting in the cold for a couple hours.