Alright so today was the day that I got to redeem myself of my previous Noh experience. I feel as though with the new background in it, I was able to enjoy the performances a little bit more. The transcripts that we had also helped a lot.
The first play, Haku Rakuten, was a blur because I was asleep through most of it… I know that’s probably an awful thing to do, but the slower plays are just not my thing. I tried to follow along with the transcript and the story, but it did not really pull me in. I’m not the biggest fan of super traditional and layered poem analysis which is what this play was full of. Still, the costumes and everything on stage was absolutely beautiful.
The second, Ikkaku Sennin was a different kind of Noh play. It was demon based instead of diety based like the first one and it was much faster paced and to be honest the plot was short for as long as it was. I say that with surprise because it felt like there were many things happening though it boiled down to only a few events. There were also children in this play which was surprising. I find Noh to be a traditional art that takes a lot of study so I can only imagine what the children must have been doing to train! They were so cute in their fiery red, black and gold outfits. I’m sure cute is not the feeling these dragon gods were trying to project, but I applaud them for how well they did both performed.
