Noh Theatre

Noh Masks at the V&A Museum

Noh Theatre!
The metaphorical curtains open with flutes and drums to summon the spirits of the play. A row of musicians sit across the back wall and transport the audience back to middle ages Japan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxJvAQrxgKM
Noh theatre is slightly different to Western theatre in that many Noh plays centre on a single character known as the Shite. There will occasionally be a supporting actor, which was called the waki. All other roles serve to embolden the shite.
I find it to be quite unnerving a places. Alien. Mystical. All actors seen at all time.
Main character crosses bridge from the world of the death to the world of the living.
Props kept to minimum. Closely controlled movements. Precise.
Masks 450 different masks - age sex and station. Paul Claudel "The mask serves to remove the personage from actual time and consolidates forever the passion and of which it is the form with the age of which it is the symbol with the historic or legendary event of which he was the maker."
The mask Illusion of separate dimension. Signifies emotion. Emotion conveyed through controlled movement and lighting effects. Tilting upwards brightens the mask and suggests laughter or smiling. Downwards darkens the mask and causes it to appear sad.
Rigid control. Singing and dancing. Maidens old men demons and spirits of nature. Spirits who die with grievances return - Eternal nature of human passions.

I am particularly taken with Noh theatre because I find there to be a sense of hidden power within the performance clips that I have watched online. In my opinion, the audience is completely transported to another time and place, which is something I find harder to do with more Western plays. However, this may be largely down to the fact that it is performed in another language, which makes the entire piece more foreign and out of the ordinary. I find Noh theatre to be truly universal because although there are words, it is very non verbal and the pure emotion is shown through body language.