✭✭✭✭✭

by Yokouchi Kensuke, directed by Ichikawa Ennosuke III

Shimbashi Embujo, Ginza

April 1, 1999-May 24, 2000

The opening of Japan in 1868 brought with it the desire to imitate a Western aesthetic in kabuki, thus doing away in post-Meiji plays with all the elements of stylization that made kabuki such a unique dramatic form.  In 1986, however, one popular traditional kabuki actor, Ichikawa Ennosuke III, developed a form which he called “super-kabuki” (スーパー歌舞伎) which blends the traditional stylization of classical kabuki with the latest Western developments in stagecraft. 

It may be hard to believe, but in the 17th century the kabuki stage was technically far superior to the Western stage.  It not only had traps but lifts not just on stage but in the “hanamichi” itself.  It also had a revolve on stage with traps and lifts in it and the possibility of lifting the entire revolve itself.  What was done by manpower back then is now done by electricity.  Ennosuke had the brilliant idea of reviving kabuki, not by continuing along the lines of Western realism as it had, but by importing Western technology to add to kabuki’s native arsenal of effects.  Primary among these is lighting.  In all forms of classical Japanese theatre the lights remain on in the auditorium throughout and the light does not vary on stage.  This is for the simple reason that all these forms originally were performed outdoors.  Ennosuke, however, adds all possible lighting effects and the house lights fade to black before a scene just as in the West.  To this he has adds flying (from the stage into the upper balcony), smoke and dry ice, a dramatic pre-recorded orchestral soundtrack and, borrowing from Chinese opera, a heavy emphasis on acrobatics in all battle scenes.  All this combined makes for stylized spectacle plays that make anything we’ve seen in Western megamusicals look paltry by comparison. 

I saw his first “super-kabuki”, YAMATO TAKERU at the Shimbashi Embujo (just 5 minutes from the Kabuki-za) in 1986 and was amazed by it but didn’t know it if would catch on.  Well, luckily it did and I was very fortunate to see his latest work, SHIN SANGOKUSHI (The New Tale of the Three Brothers) at the same theatre, which was such a hit last year that it was revived this year.  Although there is only an English plot summary in

the programme, the play is so theatrical and so spectacular that knowing all the details is not really necessary.  Yet, reading the summary made me realize that Ennosuke is also using “super-kabuki” to change the subject matter of kabuki.  All of his plays have been set in the remote past, but this one is set during the Han dynasty in China--certainly the first kabuki play ever set outside of Japan.  Second, one of the three “brothers” is actually a woman (still an “onnagata”) but who determines to wear men’s clothes because she can achieve more.  And third, the story of the three “brothers” fighting to make China a better place to live has an unavoidable political thrust which became clear in a chilling scene when a stage full of peasants rebelling against their overload is mown down (with swords not bullets) and we are left to contemplate the carnage as the curtain falls. 

As in traditional kabuki, scenes tend to climax in in a “mié” or pose freezing the action emphasized by the rapping of the “tsuke” or wooden blocks beaten against the floor.  Virtually every scene in Ennosuke’s works includes several single or group “mié” and to my surprise many of these received “kakegoe” as they would in a classical play.  (Does this mean the traditionalists have accepted him?)  I will not go into the complex plot except to say that all three “brothers” die for the sake of their cause but do manage to enthrone the only just ruler of the four feuding Chinese kingdoms. 

“Super-kabuki” alternates between scenes of dialogue and and scenes of spectacle much as opera does between recitative and aria.  Perhaps the most outstanding spectacle I’d ever seen on stage anywhere occurred in the second act when the curtain opens on a three-dimensional ship in flames filling the entire stage and slowly revolving as it sinks into a sea of dry ice.  When the bow points directly toward the audience, the ship seems to break in two as the bow rises up and crew members fall into the sea or struggle to hold on.  Still the burning ship continues to revolve until finally sinking entirely into the sea amid the screams of the crew  As if that were not enough, a small boat then appears at house right holding an evil lord and men with a lantern hoping to kill any survivors.  As their boat glides off the stage and onto the “hanamichi”, the curtain closes.  Suddenly, one man with a shield stands up and the previously bare shield suddenly bristles with vibrating arrows.  The curtain swiftly rises to reveal a completely different ship on the sea commanded by Ennosuke with bowmen all along the side. 

There is much more to tell, but I must say the show also included an elaborate “tachimawari” with multiple “mié” set in a huge rushing waterfall the full height and length of the stage!  A knowledge of traditional kabuki will help to understand how Ennosuke has revitalized the old conventions.  But anyone interested in seeing the product of someone who has fully mastered all forms of stagecraft, old and new, Eastern and Western, could not do better than seeing Ennosuke’s latest work.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in the TheatreWorld (UK) 2000-05-28.

Illustration: Poster for world premiere of Shin Sangokushi. ©1999 Tadanoro Yokoo.  Photo: Ennosuke IV and his uncle Ennosuke III as Guan Yu. ©1999.