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| Volume
4 |
･THE
KABUKI STAGE. |
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･A
WORD ABOUT PERSPECTIVE. |
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･THE KABUKI STAGE
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My first encounter with
Kabuki occurred in Paris long years ago at Theatre de
l'Odeon where a season of performances from the world
over was taking place. The only reference I had about
Japanese performing art was the movies discovered a few
years earlier when '~Rashomon" of Akira Kurosawa
arose surprise and admiration. Contemporary theatre in
France, at that time, was divided between followers of
Bertolt Brecht and those of the so-called theatre of the
absurd. As a playwright to be, secretly writing for many
reasons neither one nor the other school seemed satisfactory
to my needs. In all aspects of it, I was looking for a
new perspective without vanishing point. "Shunkan"
was performed. Not only could I not understand a single
word but I could not even dream of understanding It one
day But the impression was so strong that I just registered
what I was seeing the character's acting and chiefly the
bare stage part of it covered with blue cloth as the hanamichi.
There was no vanishing point. The character was confined
in an island surrounded by the unlimited sea.
Theatre de l'Odeon had an Italian style stage. Even though
the simple setting was so effective that one could feel
the impassable barrier of the sea and the confined character's
agony. In the short time of the play, I grasped that the
Kabuki way of using space and setting suited my needs.
The symbolic power of the play was amplified, there was
no vanishing point, in the relation between stage and
audience, the world of the stage, preceded by the hanamichi,
was taking hold of the whole theater including the audience.
Later onf after having seen many Kabuki plays performed
in Japan I came to think that there was a link between
the narration time dimension, the predominating horizontal
lines In the Kabuki stage somehow panoramic, and the "~emakimono".
Anyhow I had found what I had been looking for.
･A WORD
ABOUT PERSPECTIVE
The operation of producing a play on the stage means to
deal with two kinds of space and two kinds of time. The
space and the time of the play have to fit into the limited
space of the stage and to spread out in the allotted time
of the performance A right perspective is needed in order
to make the imaginary dimension of space and time of the
play fit into the real space of the stage and the limited
time of the performance. Besides as representing the real
three dimensional world on a plane follows the rules of
perspective, in the mutual influence of theatre and painting
can be noticed the change of ages. However in the same period,
in the same area, the perspective changes owing to individual
vision. The example of Peter Bruegel The Elder's view from
above is particularly interesting. Why, did I, a playwright
influenced by the sharp view from above of Peter Bruegel
The Elder, pursue theatre art as far as the stage of the
Edo period ? to tell the story would be too long. But, there
is no doubt that on the theatre stage of the Edo period
as well as in the paintings of Peter Bruegel The Elder,
the tragedy and comedy of this world is depicted according
to the right perspective. |
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Jeanne
Sigee
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Jeanne sigee
Writer,stage direcor,japonologist
Secondaary school:Lain,Greek.
University:Law,English(Paris),Japanese(Waseda niversity
Tokyo)
Training of the Kabuki actor (Tokyo)
Bunraku puppeteers,narrators,shamisen playerg(Osaka,going
on)
Professional Licence of Fujima school of Nihon Buyo(name
fujima Sumil)
Published works
| 1969 |
[La
bataille des hymnes ],Poems,Paris |
| 1976 |
[Onze
faces de la merci],Poems,Paris,Prize academie francaise |
| 1979 |
[Les
specters de Yotsuya],unabridged translation of "Tokaido
Yotsuya Kaidan" by Tsuruya Namboku,with introduction,commentaries,notes
Bibliotheque des Hautes Etudes du college de France,Paris |
| 1996 |
second
edition 1996 |
| 1986 |
[anthologie
de poesie japonaise cantemporaine] gallimard Paris,first
edition,many editions afterwards (jaint authorship) |
| 1991 |
[la
catatrophe-Japon faits et ferments d'une mutation
inachevee]
Essay,Paris,with contribtion of Centre National des
Letres |
| 1997 |
second
edition,with foreword |
Unpublished poetic and dramatic works
Publication in reviews : translations from Japanese,Poems,papers
in reviews of Center Pompidou,Maison de la Poesie, Maison
de sciences de l'Homme,Lettre Internationale,
etc.etc.
Lectures : since 1973 numerous lectures at universities,
scholar and cultural bodies, communications at specialesed
seminars published in various acts, last one about status
of play in contemporary theatre and translation of plays
from Japanese, Paris 2001. Lecture and personal poetry reading,
Bourgogne literary Centre with University, Dijon, 2003.
Radio broadcast
| 1980 |
"L'
univers soore du Theatre d'Edo" series of eight
parts about Kabuki and Bunraku, France Culture |
| 1981 |
"Iemon
ou Le flot divise" radio drama in two parts (adaptation
of Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan) France Cuiture |
Theatre (Play and stage direction)
| 1986 |
[La
poule], Centre Pompidou
[L'Art-chien], id. |
| 1987 |
[La
Poix], Centre Pompodou |
| 1992 |
[La
Frontiere], Theatre de la Cite Internationale, Paris |
| 1996 |
[Iemon
ou Le flot divise],Theatre trestan Bernard, Paris |
| 1998 |
[
id. new staging ] Maison de la culture du Japon a
Paris |
| 1998 |
[Oeukonomiart].
Theatre moliere-Maison de la poesie, Paris |
| 2001 |
[L'entrepot
de sumiyoshi] Le Havre, Strasbourg, Colmar, Boulogne-Billancourt, |
| 2002 |
[La
Meuse a sept queues], Theatre Moliere-Maison de la
Poesie, Paris |
| 2003 |
[Iemon
ou Le flot devise], Theatre Municipal d'Anzin (Valenciennes) |
In prowress : translation from Japanese (Bunraku theatre),
essay on Europe, new play, theatre creation and reprisal
in 2004 and 2005
Stars : Ordre des Arts et Lettres (France)
Order of the Sacres Treasure (Japan)
Member of SACD (playwrights socity), SGDL (writers), SFEJ
(Japonokogists France), European Association for Japanese
Studies, Pen Club, etc. |
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