LCF: A Mirror of Osaka (7/17 - 7/25)

producer: Lincoln Center Festival

One of the centerpieces of this summer's Lincoln Center Festival, this is an authentic Kabuki performance by an acknowleged master of the art, playing a specially constructed (air conditioned) shibaigoya in Damrosch Park.

Closing Date: July 25, 2004

From the presenter:

Lincoln Center Festival 2004 will present the world-renowned Nakamura Kankuro V and his Kabuki theater Heisei Nakamura-za in the New York premiere of Natsumatsuri Naniwa Kagami (The Summer Festival: A Mirror of Osaka). These performances, the first time in 15 years Kabuki from Japan has been performed in New York, have been scheduled to commemorate 150 years of Japanese-American relations, which formally began with the signing of the U.S.-Japan Peace and Amity Treaty (Kanagawa Treaty) in 1854. They will also be the first performances of a Kabuki play performed by a Japanese company in New York in an authentic shibaigoya, or traditional Kabuki theater, that will transform Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park into a vision of 17th -century Edo Japan.

The Nakamura family has been one of the great Kabuki dynasties in Japan since the 17th century, passing the 400-year-old performance traditions from father to son through the generations. Forty-eight-year-old Nakamura Kankuro V, the current heir to this great legacy, is one of Japan's leading Kabuki actors. 2004 also marks an important point in the life of Nakamura Kankuro V. It will be the last year he will be known as Kankuro, as he will assume the name Kanzaburo in 2005, for the 18th generation in his family's history.

Over the past decade, Nakamura Kankuro V, who also stars in contemporary plays in Japan, has set out to revitalize the conventions of Kabuki, which was started by Okuni, a shrine maiden from the Izumo Shrine located in the state of Shimane. Her performances in a dry bed of the Kamo River in the ancient capital of Kyoto around the year 1600 caused a sensation. Soon the scale of Kabuki performances grew, and a number of rival Kabuki street theater companies arose. "I wanted to get back to the old way of doing things," Nakamura Kankuro V told an interviewer in 2000. "I wanted people to feel as if they were visiting a fair grounds, coming to a happy place where they could eat a little food, have some drinks, feel a little light and free." Japanese audiences have responded with belly laughs and cheers to the happy-go-lucky, slapstick, slightly risque quality of his performances.

For the Lincoln Center Festival performances the all-male company will perform in a specially designed 500+-seat shibaigoya that will be erected in Damrosch Park (complete with a hanamichi, or a central runway, and sajiki, cushioned seats on the floor). Natsumatsuri Naniwa Kagami (The Summer Festival: A Mirror of Osaka) is set against a backdrop of 18th-century Osaka's equivalent to Mardi Gras. A wayward young lord, who is something of a samurai playboy, intends to marry a teahouse courtesan. Troubles ensue, but three "street knights" (commoners) rally round him to save him and his geisha.

Saturday, July 17 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Sunday, July 18 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Monday, July 19 at 7 p.m.
Tuesday, July 20 at 2 p.m. and7 p.m.
Wednesday, July 21 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Thursday, July 22 at 7 p.m.
Friday, July 23 at 7 p.m.
Saturday, July 24 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Sunday, July 25 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

what the critics said:

4.0 out of 5.0 (click for excerpts)

ticket prices:

$75.00 - $100.00

venue:

Lincoln Center - Damrosch Park (information)

(map & driving directions) (parking) (parking coupon)

link to official show site:

official website