Kabuki! Men dressed in elaborate kimonos with extravagant makeup. Musicians playing the shamisen, flutes, drums, and an assortment of other instruments. Singers with a sound like cante flamenco, bending their tone in and out of tune. Extravantly stylized, but exquisitely expressive, acting and mime. Speaking voices modulated to an extreme, so much so that the limits of the human throat seem to be approached. Fable-like story lines. These are the elements of Kabuki and they are strangely compelling when all put together.
So, the four of us ventured into Kyoto to see it live and with good seats. As the time for the performance approached, the atmosphere became more surreal as uniformed young women intoning a warning chant-like against the use of photography or recording devices worked their way up the aisles, as a wood block sounded seemingly at random.
We were able to follow the stories reasonably well thanks to plot synopses in a booklet with the bios of all the actors, including this gentlemen who played a young woman who succeeded in outwitting the hermit so the dragon could be unleashed and the drought brought to an end, or something like that.
