KABUKI IN ENGLISH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII

James R. Brandon

"You! Blockhead! Bean-paste brain! Outhouse The University of Hawaii has a long tradition of ass! Geeeeeet! Ooooouuuuut!" The dashing figure staging Japanese plays in English. During the in chic black kimono stamps on the floor, strikes 1930's one Japanese play (usually Kabuki or modern his chest with his clenched fist, glares at his two Japanese drama, shingeki) was staged annually for trembling opponents, crosses one eye and poses a period of about eight years, under the auspices of triumphantly. The red and black kumadori lines of the theatre program, then part of the Department makeup around his eyes, flaring up from his temples of English. Following the end of World War 11, Dr. and outlining his mouth, intensifying the dynamic Earle Ernst introduced courses in Japanese theatre expression. The peony crests decorating the into the curriculum of the Department of Drama kimono, a gold and silver brocade sash, and an and Theatre. His knowledge of Kabuki was elegant purple headband binding up the swept­ unsurpassed in American educational theatre. forward, glistening black top knot of the Eda-period Using costumes, wigs, and properties rented from commoner, leaves no doubt that this figure, professional theatrical houses in Tokyo, Dr. Ernst strutting his way about the stage, is Sukeroku of directed three full-length Kabuki dramas in the the play Sukeroku: rhe Flower of Edo, one of the decade 1953-1963: Benten the Thief, The House of most popular of all Japanese Kabuki dramas. No one 5ugawara, and to inaugurate the opening of Kennedy who knows Kabuki would mistake it, for the Theatre in the East-West Center Complex in 1963, precise form of the makeup, the melodies played Benlen the Thief again. Choreography in these on the three-stringed shamisen that accompanies productions was directed by the Honolulu dance the action, and the action itself (down to the finger teacher Gertrude Tsutsumi (stage name Onoe positions in the clenched fist) are as identifiably Kikunobu) and the professional Kabuki actor Onoe from Sukeroku: the Flower of Edo as the player's Kuroemon. scene is from Hamler or the nose scene is from The most recent productions of Kabuki plays in Cyrano de Bergerac. We might be sitting in the English have been Sukeroku: the Flower of Edo Kabuki-za or the National Theatre in Tokyo (1970) and Narukami the Thunder Cod (1973) . watching Kabuki, but we are not; the dialogue, Authentic music (played by shamisen, drums, and after all, is in English. We are sitting in Kennedy flute) and songs traditionally associated with the Theatre, on the Manoa campus of the University plays, were performed by students and faculty of of Hawaii and the players are university students the Department of Music, under the direction of majoring in drama, music, dance, and some in Yamada Chie and Ricardo Trimillos. Both Asian Studies. productions included lengthy and quite complex It would be presumptuous to suggest that in the group fighting scenes, choreographed by skill of their performance the student cast of actors Makamura Matagoro, a professional Kabuki (and actresses), musicians, and singers, can be actor who also provided the student casts with compared with the professional Kabuki artists of intensive coaching in elocutionary techniques and Japan. The aim of the performance at Kennedy movement drill. As in the earlier productions of Theatre is not, however, to be professional, but to Kabuki, costumes and wigs were either rented or provide American students of theatre and of purchased in Japan or were made in the costume Japanese culture the opportunity to study and to shop of the theatre, under the direction of Sandra experience as directly as possible what Kabuki Finney. With each production we have been able to drama and theatre is. Toward that end we bend move several steps further toward achieving a high every effort in production to recreate the play degree of authenticity in the performances. authentically, to stage it as it would be seen in The unique value of these productions suggested the professional theatre in Japan. that they should be preserved and so they were 19 recorded in entirety on video-tape by HETV. The Filipino, Thai, and African heritage have taken part tapes have been telecast several times for television in the productions. Talent, experience, and the viewers on Oahu and the Neighbor Islands by willingness to devote grueling hours to rehearsals HETV, and the color tape of Narukami the Thunder are the criteria that apply in casting. The Anglo­ God was telecast nationally in September, 1973, by Saxon freshman's long nose and thin face turning the Public Broadcasting Service. (The tapes of both into those of a Japanese samurai under the thick plays have been converted to 16mm film and are coat of makeup (who in the audience can see the available for free loan to qualifying institutions blue eyes?); the graduate student from Japan, who from the American Theatre Association, 1317 F. St. because of her sex could never dream of stepping N.W., Washington, D.C.) on the Kabuki stage in her own country, finding Over the years, the Kabuki productions of the herself playing a Kabuki role in Hawaii; the Department of Drama and Theatre have consistently third-generation Japanese student, discovering been the most popular of all plays in our season in his part an unexpected window opening onto a bill. Some 10,000 people saw Narukami the Thunder facet of his cultural heritage he had not previously God over a run of sixteen performances. Of course, suspected, resolving then to study Japanese dance, interest in Japanese theatre is high among the and two years later returning to act in Kabuki population of the State which is largely of Japanese again; these are all part of the complex inter-cultural descent, but that is only part of the explanation. journey we and our students travel when we do Kabuki is also an intensely exciting theatrical Kabuki in English at the University of Hawaii. experience; colorful, dynamic, filled with humor Throughout Kabuki's three-hundred-year history and action, its appeal transcends racial or cultural it has been a popular theatre, always changing and preconceptions. Our audience for Kabuki in English adapting to new circumstances. Consequently, is largely drawn from the student body, but many there are often a number of ways to stage a play from the community also attend. While all drama is or to play a scene and it is not easy to say in some written to be produced, and productions are inte nded cases what is authentic. I have been asked, for for the education and the entertainment of the example, why we did not do Narukami the Thunder audience at large, our Kabuki productions serve Goe/ "authentically" and end the play with another important educative function. From fifty Narukami's exit, as is done in Japan today. (In our to seventy students are involved in all aspects of production Narukami was slain in a succeeding performance. Because the art of Kabuki is highly scene.) The answer is that we used the earliest sophisticated, highly structured, and its forms of extant scrip! of the play, dating from 1742, in which expression highly demanding, the student who Narukami's death is staged; the present-day custom participates in a production is forced to grow and of not performing this scene is a developmenl of expand in artistic experience. The necessity for the nineteenth century. We wanted 10 stage this students to master precise, detailed movement interesting scene in which Narukami is slain by patterns and styles of voice production, often Toyohide, lhe lover of Lady Taema, for in our resuhs in the student assimilating, quite view the 1742 version of the play was more authentic unconsciously, a new self-discipline as an artist. than later versions. A sufficiently detailed script Normally, Western drama makes relatively small for this particular scene was not available. So, de mands of the student actor; the range of working from available plot outlines, Matagoro-san, e xpression is close to that of daily life. On the other the cast, and I created action and dialogue. Although hand exposure over a period of four or five monlhs the scene was not authentic in the sense that it was of daily rehearsals and classes to Kabuki as it is a literal duplication of the scene as it was staged performed, can open exciting new horizons in the in 1742, it could be said that our production was art of theatre to the student actor, actress, musician, more faithful to the artistic intent of the play as or dancer. a whole than the shorter versions which are staged Casting is open to all studenls in the University, in Japan today. although as a rule most of the students who do It is easiest to be authe ntic in the visual details audition for roles are majors in drama, one of the of production. Kennedy Theatre has a hanamichi other arts, or the humanities. The results of casting rampway through the audience for enlrances and reflect the multi-racial nature of the studenl body; exits, as do Kabuki theatres in Japan, and we install students of European, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, the traditional Kabuki draw curtain for our

21 productions. Jn costumes, wigs, makeup, properties, vulgar "outhouse ass." All the translations for and scenery, almost total authenticity can be yaro (fellow, guy, man, mug) were weak and achieved. Traditional movement patterns also can seemed to soften, rather than strengthen, the effect be learned and, to the best of the performer's of the line; so none were used. Finally, the order of abilities, reproduced. Although learning movement the three phrases was altered, placing the shortest patterns is very time consuming, in principle there one in English first, and the one with the most is nothing to prevent the body of the American open vowels last, so that the final syllables of the student from moving in the same sequences and phrase could be sustained during the performance. assuming the same postures as those of the Japanese The result was, "Blockhead! Bean-paste brain! Kabuki actor. The scenes, in short, in our English Outhouse ass!" Undeniably, the English meaning Kabuki look very much as they would in the differs from the Japanese, but within the context professional Kabuki theatre. The falling-on-the-back of the scene as played on the stage, it fulfills the acrobatic movements of the Fighting Chorus, dramatic function intended in the original. Narukami's pose on the platform glaring down at Second, there are special structural features in the fallen lady Taema, or a hero posed standing on the language used in Kabuki that are strongly the backs of his enemies, are familiar to Kabuki related to performing techniques and should be audiences in Japan. But it is much harder to speak maintained as much as possible in English. For of authenticity where the dramatic text is example, if the Japanese line is long we try to write concerned. Since the original text of the play will be a long English line. In the speech which just proceeds recreated in a new language, and in the process Sukeroku's insults to his enemies, he announces inevitably nuances of meaning and emotional who he is in a grandiloquent "name-saying" speech expression will be lost, in principle it is impossible that consists of half a dozen extremely long to perfarm a completely authentic English­ sentences. Some are more than 100 syllables long language Kabuki drama. There must be some and are broken into eight or nine interlocking changes made to suit the new language. phrases. Several days were spent on this one Nonetheless, our aim in creating a suitable speech in order to create English lines of English-language performance script is to retain as approximately the same interlocking complexity much authenticity as possible. Jn doing this, two and length. The reason the speech is so written, is main features of dramatic dialogue are kept in that the actor speaks it at machine-gun speed, mind. First, we recognize that in drama of any building up to a powerful climax at the end; in kind dialogue is not the "play" which requires English the speech worked the same way because translation. Dialogue is only the verbal consequence it was structured the same way. One of the longest or vocal manifestation of the characters' "inner monologues in Kabuki is Narukami's tirade against action" within the drama. What must be translated lady Taema in Narukami the Thunder God. This, is this inner action, in all its human complexity and too, consists.of a series of long sentences which depth of emotion. To give one example, the inner gradually become shorter and more powerful, and action of Sukeroku's line quoted at the beginning conclude in a terrifying shriek of accusation. Tapes of this article might be stated as follows: a proud, of Japanese performances were carefully listened to impetuous young man taunts his enemies with and the precise way in which the speech developed deliberately flagrant insults. Three insulting images and built (not only the words' meanings but the are found in the Japanese: "bean-paste" (taremiso), surge and flow of the actor's voice) was charted "filthy plank" over a muddy street (dobuita), and out. The equivalent in English, in terms of meaning "tea dregs" (dashigara). Each expletive is followed and structure, was then worked out. Other passages by the suffix yaro, (fellow). A literal translation of Kabuki dialogue, written in alternating phrases would be, "Muddy plank fellow, bean-paste fellow, of seven and five syllables (shichigocho, the tea dregs fellow," which sounds simply ludicrous standard poetic metric form) are declaimed in a when spoken in English. Returning to the inner special rhythmic style of speaking. In order to action to be conveyed, "bean-paste" was kept and retain the vocal, elocutionary technique in the "brain" was added for the extra syllable and for English-language performance, there is no alliteration; the utterly limp sounding "tea dregs" alternative other than translation into seven was replaced with "blockhead," which has strong, and five syllable English phrases. (Haiku and hard consonant sounds; and the filthy image of other types of Japanese poetry that use the seven­ "muddy plank" was turned into the slightly more five syllable count are often successfully translated 22 into English lines of other lengths, but the effect in Kyogen Acting and will direct a program of of these poems, unlike Kabuki, does not rely upon dances and two Kyogen comedies to be presented hearing the cadence of the line as it is spoken in Kennedy Theatre, May 3 and 4, 1974. When will orally.) Needless to say, this kind of translating is we stage the next Kabuki in English at the a demanding and time-consuming process, but the University of Hawaii? Each production is a major results in maintaining a considerable level of undertaking and requires about six months authenticity in the English-language performance preparation, but it has become a tradition for are well worth the effort. audiences and students alike. Perhaps next year Of course, producing Kabuki plays in English is or the year after. We can hardly wait. only one part, and indeed a small part, of the program of the Department of Drama and Theatre at the University of Hawaii. Fortunately, there has always been strong support for Kabuki in English and with each production we have been able to go a few steps further. Course work in Theatre of Japan and China is offered in the Department on James R. Brandon is Professor of Drama and Theatre at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. Receiving his Ph.B, M.S., and both the undergraduate and graduate levels; Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, he has authored productions of other types of Japanese plays, and numerous articles, books and translations on Japanese and Asian dramas of other Asian countries, are a regular part theatre arts. He has directed English-language performances of Kennedy Theatre offerings. As of this writing, of Kabuki drama at the Michigan State University Theatre and was director at Kennedy Theatre , University of Hawaii, of the through the courtesy of the Japan Foundation, 1970 performance of Sukeroku: Flower of Edo and the 1973 Nomura Mansaku, professional Kyogen actor, is performance of Narukami the Thunder Cod. Dr. Brandon has Guest Artist at the University. He is teaching a class also been 1he recipient of several grants for research in Japan.

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