My Tran An artist in a Japanese Bunraku puppet show - Photo: Courtesy of organizers Ranked as one of Japan’s foremost stage arts, the Ningyo Johruri Bunraku puppet theater (Bunraku) is a blend of sung narrative, instrumental accompaniment and puppet drama. The Bunraku plots related to this new form of puppet theater are based on two principal sources of historical plays set in feudal times (Jidaimono) and contemporary dramas about the conflicts between affairs of heart and social obligation (Sewamono). Ningyo Johruri adopted its characteristic staging style by the mid-eighteenth century with three puppeteers visible to the audience. From a projecting elevated platform (yuka), the narrator (tayu) recounts the action while a musician provides musical accompaniment on three-stringed spike lute (shamisen). To solely dubs all characters voice in a play, one tayu has to change different voices and intonations. Although the tayu sreads from a scripted text, there is ample room for improvisation. About 160 works out of the 700 plays written during the Edo period have remained in today’s repertory. Nowadays, the aesthetic qualities and dramatic content of the plays continue to appeal to modern audiences. The show is part of the Asean tour of young professionals of Bunraku Puppet Theater from Bunraku Company who will present joint-workshops, build network and exchange skills with local traditional puppet theater in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Hanoi. The performance and exchange will take place from 10 a.m. at the Vietnam Puppet Theater, 361 Truong Chinh, Thanh Xuan District in Hanoi. Invitation tickets will be available at the Japan Foundation Center Cultural Exchange at 27 Quang Trung, Hoan Kiem in Hanoi from 12 p.m. today. The program is not recommended for children under 12 years old.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 17:40:59 +0000