(Japan Newsletter published by the Japan Information and Cultural Centre.)
On Thursday, September 16, a fascinating dialogue took place between actors Mark Rylance and Nakamura Ganjiro at Shakespeare's Globe in London. Organised by The Japan Society, the event attracted a capacity audience, and yielded interesting insights relating to the theme Synergies of the Theatrical Traditions of Japan and Britain.
Mark Rylance, Artistic Director of the Globe, first discovered the similarities between the Shakespearean and Kabuki traditions when taking a production to the Tokyo Globe. During a performance by Ganjiro, he was struck by the fact that the audience was eating, drinking and shouting out, reflecting the social nature of the theatre in Shakespeare's day. He also noted a thematic similarity in that both genres of play told ethical stories in an entertaining fashion.
For his part, Nakamura Ganjiro, celebrated Kabuki actor and Living National Treasure of Japan, became aware of the connections between Shakespeare and Chikamatsu, a Kabuki playwright through a documentary on Japanese television. When he saw Sir Laurence Olivier perform Shakespeare in the mid 1970s, he was surprised by how similar the roles and styles of delivery were to those in Kabuki. Backstage, he told Lord Olivier of his plans to set up a troupe in Japan to perform the works of Chikamatsu, often called the Japanese Shakespeare.
Ten years later, Ganjiro set up the Chikamatsu troupe, which will perform Love Suicide at Sonezaki as part of Japan 2001 to mark its 20th anniversary. Ganjiro himself will be playing the role of Ohatsu, a 19 year-old girl, which he performed for the thousandth time in 1995.
During a lively question and answer session, Ganjiro explained that a Kabuki actor learns a range of different techniques in order to play female roles or onna-gata. The most difficult thing, he explained, is not to become a woman but to present a woman. When he saw Mark Rylance perform the role of Cleopatra, he had been impressed by how like a woman he seemed, in spite of the fact that he had not learnt these techniques. Mark explained that he had wanted to play the part of a woman so that the audience would have to be more creative in making the leap between the actor and the role.