The Noh

Last night I had a group of friends over to read some Noh plays out loud. Noh is traditional theater of Japan, dating back to the fourteenth century. It’s not just the incredible capacity of it to create theater out of non-theatrical, un-dramatic moments that fascinates me (the moment of highest tension in Ama, or The Diver, is when a ghost tells a story about another woman’s dive into a sidereal castle), it’s also the intense formalization of space. Check out this map of the stage:

Map of Noh stage from http://spots.gru.edu.

Every part of the stage has a performative purpose. The Villager in Eguchi would never tell the story of how the Harlot transformed into the bodhistattva and transcended the seaweed-clogged lake into the glowing heavens anywhere except in the spot called the villager position. And for her part, the Harlot/bodhisattva would never dance the jo-no-mai, about her desire and attachment to the world of pleasure from anywhere else but in front of the drums.

And oh… Did I mention the masks? Different angles = different moods.

Thanks, Wiki!

That’s just like my face!