Japan & National Noh Theatre, Tokyo
Japan was amazing and a-mazing. Really. Has to be seen and experienced to believe.
Paul Miller has written from a theatre point of view. See here.
I’m just going to give a little flavour from a visitor point of view.
I went to see a Noh play at the National Noh theatre.
See my picture taken from outside (no pictures allowed inside). There’s lots to say but I think I just want to dwell on the audience.
I was an afternoon performance but the theatre was full. There was even space outside to see the performance on a tv screen.
There was a mix of young (school/student trips?) and old. There was a mix of those who seemed rapt and those who were actually asleep. There was a mix of reverence and incomprehension. Many had a programme tracking what actors were saying and doing through the performance. Yet, at crucial points the audience was, I think as rapt, as I have seen at any theatre performance (maybe it was the drum and foot stamps). A shared experienced. Pretty good for a form stretching back to the 14th century.
[Still trying to fix the comments: apols and pls email if you'd like]
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3 Responses to “Japan & National Noh Theatre, Tokyo”
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About me
I'm a playwright and investment analyst. I have a broad range of interests: food, gardening, innovation & intellectual property, sustainability, architecture & design, writing and the arts. I sit on the board of Talawa Theatre Company and advise a CIS investment trust on socially responsible investments.
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Recent Work
Recent plays include, for theatre: Nakamitsu, Yellow Gentlemen, Lost in Peru, Lemon Love. For radio: Places in Between (R4), Patent Breaking Life Saving (WS).
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Nakamitsu
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Yellow Gentlemen
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Really glad that you’ve had a good time. I had the same experience of people sound asleep at the Noh, but the most magical thing was the Bunraku theatre which I saw at the National Theatre. The Noh is supposed to be best experienced outdoors at night but I never got to do that.
I didn’t manage to make it to the Bunraku theatre, unfortunately. I hope to go again one day and perhaps see it then. There’s a Noh performance in Kyoto they do at night against a back drop of bonfires and that is meant to be spectacular. I was very bowled over by Japan and it wasn’t as expensive (cf London) as I thought it might be…
Yes I agree about the cost of things. It’s advertised as the most expensive place on earth, but actually in comparison to London it’s fine. And the relative standard of things (eg food) is just so much greater anyway.