Letter from New York
15
December 2003.
Copyright ©2003 by
Mindy Aloff
Mansaku
Nomura, the John Gielgud of classical Japanese theater, performed with
his son Mansai and his four or five year-old grandson Yuuki at Japan Society
this week in what, for me, was the finest example of the actor’s
art to be seen in New York since January 1982, when I last saw Nomura
at Asia House. Mansaku Nomura is a master of kyogen (“crazy word”)
drama: a six century-old, dialogue-based theater, comic in nature, that
developed contemporaneously with noh and is often performed as an interlude
between tragic or mystical noh plays. In this little season presented
by the Nomura family, the nightly programs of two 45-minute plays were
kyogen all the way—although, the night I attended, one of the two,
Kawakami (translated as Kawakami Headwaters), evoked smiles through
tears, and the other, Utsubozaru (The Monkey Skin Quiver), evoked
laughter through horror. Kawakami is about an elderly blind man
(Mansaku Nomura), who, to regain his sight, must promise to divorce his
beloved wife (played by Yukio Ishida, a former student of Mansaku’s
and now the head of his own noh/kyogen company). Utsubozaru concerns
a samurai (Mansai Nomura) who, about to go hunting, insists on wresting
a trained baby monkey from its trainer in order to skin it for its fur
to cover the quiver for his arrows. The baby monkey, played by Yuuki Nomura,
thinks that the stick being raised to brain it is actually a cue for it
to dance. The samurai, astonished at the monkey’s skill, relents
and keeps his quiver as it was.
Thanks to excellent translations, flashed on a screen, we could easily follow the dialogue, although the physical eloquence of Mansaku and his troupe is of such an order that one could tell what the large emotional changes were through the stage action, alone. Kyogen, as Mansaku has introduced it to the West (which he began to do with his father on a cultural-exchange tour in Paris, in 1957), is a highly physical actors’ theater of extreme elegance and understatement. The body is disciplined to move in such a way that one cannot see how it is propelled, which showcases every slightest change—every facial expression, every gesture, down to the crook of a fingertip. Consequently, every movement pops out and “reads”; and every movement takes on tremendous significance.
Furthermore,
the control that Mansaku exerts over his voice has to be heard to be appreciated.
He can infuse it with rheum or suction it momentarily. He can whisper
to the heavens or shout in a closed chamber, so that one hears it as if
through a wall. In 1982, he reproduced the tolling of bells. Two decades
later, his virtuosity consisted of investing his Eureka! moment of miraculous
sightedness with misery at the prospect of the price he would have to
pay for it, and of addressing a samurai in formal language that slid through
the air on a sea of intangible tears.
Yuuki’s little dance consisted of lighthearted, two-footed hopping and of circling his arm as he held a fan, while his grandfather-as-trainer sang and kept time with the stick fated to be the murder instrument, as he was observed by his handsome father-as-samurai and his father’s go-between servant (Hiroharu Fukata, a perfect wellspring of slowburning exasperation in the course of serving as a live telephone for samurai and trainer). It belongs with the tarentella that Nora dances in A Doll’s House as one of the key allusions in world drama to the idea of dancing as life.
Speaking of A Doll’s House brings me to Mabou Mines Dollhouse, the outrageous, piercing, head-wrenching production adapted and directed by Lee Breuer, for the Mabou Mines troupe, of Ibsen’s play, which has been held over at St. Ann’s Warehouse, in Brooklyn. My freshman lit class at Barnard asked to see it for their final art excursion. Some of them had read Ibsen; some hadn’t, yet that didn’t seem to matter in terms of their response to it. Opinions among them were polemically divided afterwards, and the one who hated it most passionately was the very drama fan who had recommended seeing it in the first place. Perhaps you’ve read about it: the women in the cast are all middling tall to very tall; the men in the cast are all of stunted growth. The set, designed as a “life-sized” doll house, is keyed to the men’s physiques, so that the women must crouch in walking through doors and scrunch up to fit into the furniture, and the men, whom the women sometimes pick up and carry or nurse, become, in effect, their own dolls. There are six dances (or dance-like numbers), choreographed by various individuals; Martha Clarke is also listed as a consultant to the “Tarentella,” which is presented as a nightmare in a nighttime lightning storm, and so is barely visible. A program note by Breuer reads: “Mabou Mines Dollhouse pays homage to an earlier adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House—Leslie Mohn’s White Bone Demon. Thank you Ms. Mohn for revealing the comedy of 'Bourgeois Tragedy,' the 'surreality' of realism and the politics of deconstruction.”
The
acting, particularly by Maude Mitchell, who plays Nora Helmer as Billie
Burke gone bonkers, is quite absorbing; I’ll never be able to read
or see the play again without thinking of Mark Povinelli, as the deeply
wounded Torvald Helmer, pawing his way up the steps of the audience bleachers
in the dark as he bays for his lost love. The production history of the
play is skewered, but there are whole scenes so unsettling they make the
work seem to have been written five minutes ago. I found an extra dimension
of surprise in certain moments of staging, too, which looked as if they
had sprung, jack-in-the-box fashion, from famous ballets. “It couldn’t
be,” I thought. “That isn’t the set of theater boxes
from Cotillon, or the final moments of Night Shadow,
or the first idea for the ending of Le Baiser de la Fée,
or the Grossvater dance from The Nutcracker. Oh, no! He’s
not going through the canter on the scarf in Nijinsky’s L’Après-midi.
. . .” Still, when Nora, in her lingerie, stands up in one
of the opera house boxes and declares her independence by ripping off
her wig of blonde curls to reveal a “bald” head, she does
look exactly like the doll Coppélia, after Swanilda has revealed
her as a doll instead of a living girl. Coppélia deconstructed?
I walked out thinking about much in the ballet repertory as a feminist
with a very spooky sense of humor and a heat-seeking-missile appreciation
of cruel subtexts might look at it. An interesting world to visit for
an evening, as long as you know your way home.
It was a very happy relief to attend, the next day, a matinee of Francis Patrelle’s Yorkville Nutcracker at the Kaye Playhouse, with its lovely deportment, its gracious dancing (particularly by Jenifer Ringer, with James Fayette, in the Sugar Plum pas de deux), its marvelous snow scene for ballet ice skaters, and its battalions of children, so happy to be on stage making illusions to the best of their ability for family and friends, all for the sake of beauty and love.
One
word more: There is much to commend in the traditional staging, by Jack
O’Brien, of the adaptation of Shakespeare’s pair of Henry
IV plays, now at the Vivian Beaumont theater in Lincoln Center.
It’s tough, slick and affirmative, like a speech by President Bush.
Indeed, when Prince Hal (Michael Hayden) assumes the ermine and makes
his first address to the assembled with a glittering eye, he resembles
Bush. I was a little sad that the adaptation, by Dakin Matthews (who also
plays Chief Justice Warwick and Owen Glendower), eliminates the closing
words of Part II--an Epilogue, which Shakespeare has "Spoken by a
Dancer" to the audience. ("If my tongue cannot entreat you to
acquit me, will you command me to use my legs? And yet that were but light
payment, to dance out of your debt.") However, I'm glad to report
that the deathbed advice of Henry IV to his namesake, on the verge of
becoming Henry V, includes those immortal lines, "Therefore, my Harry,
/ Be it thy course to busy giddy minds / With foreign quarrels; that action,
hence borne out, / May waste the memory of the former days." Dana
Ivey’s Dana Ivey's Mistress Quickly and Audra McDonald’s Lady
Percy are larger-than-life creations. As for Kevin Kline’s Falstaff:
Whoa! Heartthrob in a fat suit! The ominously efficient stage mechanisms
of Ralph Funicello's tower-and-tunnel set are full of their own surprising
choreography, and the momentary vistas into deep, dark space they provide
are what Shakespeare's histories are all about—Mindy Aloff
Photos:
First: A younger Mansaku Nomura as the Blind Husband in Kawakami
Headwaters
Photographer unknown.
Second: Mansai Nomura as the Lord (right) and Yuuki Nomura as the
Monkey in The Monkey Skin Quiver Photographer unknown.
Third: Maude Mitchell as Nora Helmer and Mark Povinelli as Torvald
Helmer in Mabou Mines Dollhouse.
Photo: Jay Muhlin.
Fourth: Kevin Kline as Falstaff and Michael Hayden as Prince Hal in
Henry IV.
Photo: Paul Kolnik.
Casting:
Mansaku-no-Kai
Kyogen Company
By Mansaku & Mansai Nomura
10-12 December 2003
Japan Society
10, 12 December
Kawakami Headwaters (Kawakami)
Blind Husband: Mansaku Nomura
Wife: Yukio Ishida
Koken (stage attendant): Kazunori Takano (10), Haruo Tsukizaki (12)
The Monkey
Skin Quiver (Utsubozaru)
Lord: Mansai Nomura
Taro-kaja: Hiroharu Fukata
Monkey Trainer: Mansaku Nomura (10), Yukio Ishida (12)
Monkey: Yuuki Nomura
Jiutai (chorus): Yukio Ishida, Kazunori Takano (10 only)
Koken: Haruo Tsukizaki (10), Kazunori Takano (12)
11 December
Sweet Poison (Busu)
Taro-kaja: Yukio Ishida
Master: Haruo Tsukizaki
Jiro-kaja: Hiroharu Fukata
Koken: Kazunori Takano
The Monkey
Skin Quiver
Lord: Mansaku Nomura
Taro-kaja: Kazunori Takano
Monkey Trainer: Mansai Nomura
Monkey: Yuuki Nomura
Koken: Hiroharu Fukata
Mabou
Mines Dollhouse
Through 14 December 2003
St. Ann’s Warehouse (Brooklyn)
Produced for Mabou Mines by Lisa Harris,
in association with Dovetail Productions, with the participation of Robert
Blacker
Direction
and Adaptation (from Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House,
with snippets from Ibsen’s The Vikings of Helgeland): Lee
Breuer
Music: Eve Beglarian
Piano score: adapted from Edvard Grieg
“Du grønne glitrende tre”: traditional
“Dollhouse Opera Finale”: Eve Beglarian
Set: Narelle Sissons
Lighting: Mary Louise Geiger
Costumes: Meganne George
Puppetry: Jane Catherine Shaw
Sound: Edward Cosla
Choreography:
“Blackmail” (Nora & Krogstadt, Act I): Eamonn Farrell
“The Minuet” (Act II): Norman Snow
“The Tarentella” (Act II): Martha Clarke (choreographic consultant),
assisted
by Gabrielle Malone
“Kristine’s Dream” (Act III): Clove Galilee
“The Seduction” (Kristine & Krogstadt, Act III): Erik
Liberman
Puppet choreography (Act III): Jane Catherine Shaw
Dramaturgy: Maude Mitchell & Jocelyn Clarke
Dialect Consultant: Aase Holby
Critical Scholarship: Anne-Charlotte Harvey
Cast:
Actors: Maude Mitchell (Nora Helmer), Mark Povinelli (Torvald Helmer),
Kristopher Medina (Nils Krogstadt), Honora Fergusson (Kristine Linde),
Ricardo Gil (Dr. Rank), Margaret Lancaster (Helene, originally performed
by Lisa Harris), Ning Yu (The Pianist), Tate Katie Mitchell (Emmy Helmer),
Zachary Houppert Nunns & Matthew Forker (Ivar Helmer), Sophie Forker
(Dream Figure)
Lead Opera House Singers: Lauren Skuce (soprano), Peter Stewart (baritone)
Doll Chorus Singers: Eve Beglarian, Nick Brooke, Milan Cronovich, Corey
Dargel, Ellie Everdell, Clove Galilee, Mikki Jordan, Michael Miller, Peter
Previti, Suanne Radar, Jenny Rappo, Jared Stein
Snare Drum on Anthem: Mary Fodiguez
Puppeteers: Jane Catherine Shaw, Rachel Applebaum, Gwen Ossenfort, Eva
Lansberry, Kristopher Medina, Honora Fergusson, Ilia Dodd Loomis, Lisa
Harris
Henry
IV
by William Shakespeare
Lincoln Center Theater at the Vivian Beaumont
Direction: Jack O’Brien
Adaptation (Pts. I & II): Dakin Matthews
Sets: Ralph Funicello
Costumes: Jess Goldstein
Lighting: Brian MacDevitt
Original Music & Sound: Mark Bennett
Fight Director: Steve Rankin
Special Effects: Gregory Meeh
Cast:
Richard Easton (King Henry IV), Michael Hayden (Henry [“Hal”],
Prince of Wales),
Lorenzo Pisoni (John of Lancaster), Dakin Matthews (Chief Justice Warwick,
Owen Glendower), Tyrees Allen (Earl of Westmoreland), Byron Jennings (Thomas
Percy, Earl of Worcester), Terry Beaver (Earl of Northumberland), Dana
Ivey (Lady Northumberland, Mistress Quickly), Ethan Hawke (Henry Percy
[“Hotspur”]), Audra McDonald (Lady Percy), Peter Jay Fernandez
(Sir Richard Vernon), Scott Ferrara (Edmund Mortimer), Anastasia Barzee
(Lady Mortimer), Stevie Ray Dallimore (Lord Hastings), Tom Bloom (Archbishop
of York, Justice Silence), C.J. Wilson (Earl of Douglas), Kevin Kline
(Sir John Falstaff), Steve Rankin (Poins), David Manis (Pistol), Ty Jones
(Nym), Stephen DeRosa (Bardolph), Genevieve Elam (Doll Tearsheet), Aaron
Krohn (Francis), Jed Orlemann (Ralph, Davy), Jeff Weiss (Justice Shallow).
Also: Christine Marie Brown, Albert Jones, Lucas Caleb Rooney, Daniel
Stewart Sherman, Corey Stoll, Baylen Thomas, Nance Williamson, Richard
Ziman (Soldiers, Servants, Tavern People, Squires).
Originally
published:
www.danceviewtimes.com
Volume 1, Number 12
December 15, 2003
Copyright ©2003 by Mndy Aloff
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