Japan Experience at the Edinburgh Festival (1998)

The following includes reviews of various Fringe shows which were promoted as part of the 'Japan Experience' at the Edinburgh Festival. This year most of the events were at a small venue, the Garage, near the Traverse theatre.  Audiences were much bigger than two years ago.

MARI NATSUKI - The Impressionist

"Mari Natsuki is an actress and singer who was born in Tokyo and made her debut in 1973 (with the song Silk Stockings). Since then, she has been active in TV, cinema and theatre and has made several recordings.
As an actress, her work includes several years with the famous Suzuki Company of Toga, where she played lead roles in Macbeth, Dionysus and Ivanov, and worked with the leading Japanese theatre director,Yukio Ninagawa. Mari played the lead in Steven Berkoff's lauded production of Metamorphosis, which opened in Tokyo in 1994. Her versatile theatre career also extends to many roles in musicals, ranging from the Rocky Horror Show to Nine, and, most recently, Les Miserables directed by John Caird in Tokyo.
She has won numerous theatre awards in Japan. Recently, her fourth album, Gorilla, made her even more popular with the younger generation.
At St Brides, Orwell Terrace: "Legendary Japanese actress Mari Natsuki explores every aspect of theatre - song, movement and mime - through works by Brecht/Weill, Piaf and Nyman". (programme note).
All the songs were in Japanese, but lyrics in English were provided in the programme. Natsuki is an excellent singer and her performance of the songs was intensely theatrical; at more than one point in the show she sang while lying on the polished boards of the St. Brides stage. There was a set of nets and draperies. It was well worth making the effort to see and hear this.
I spoke to her after the show and put my name forward for a mailing list (but haven't heard anything further).

GUMBO - Unexpectedly Yours

Formed in 1994, this group of youngsters from the wild, east end of Osaka are sure to destroy any image of the sweet, quiet Japanese people and culture you may have up to now. Overtyl expressive and with shimmering and gaudy costumes they will show you their expression of 'falling in love' the young Japanese way. If you thought that the Japanese language was monotonous, you haven't heard the Osaka-Kishiwada accent. (leaflet note)
Gumbo consists of three girls and two boys Their show, about a love angel, is an energetic mix of theatre, dance and music,  and reminded me very much of shoujo manga (Japanese comics for girls).

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YAMATO - Spirit of the Earth

Traditional Japanese Drums - Wadaiko

Taiko-Do, or traditional Japanese drumming, using drums sometimes taller than a man, is a form that has been preserved by squads of enthusiastic young Japanese.
In the summer of 1998 I saw a touring group of Western musicians who had learned the style in Japan, plus their Japanese Sensei, playing in a park in Milton Keynes. This was an interesting performance with a variety of rhythms that had a feel of authenticity. (the best performers were Sensei and one of the girls. I'm fairly sure though that girl drummers are not part of the tradition).
By contrast the performance by the all-Japanese Yamato group (also including girls) sounded to me like indiscriminate banging, a kind of "Taiko-do for the Gaijin tourists." It could be that they know what Westerners like and expect, for the performance was a sell-out, and evidently the most popular of the Garage's  Japanese events.


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CHIKUZAN TAKAHASHI

Tsugaru Shamisen
"Evocative music from the master of tsugaru shamisen, the 3-stringed guitar. Her haunting voice and improvisations of such vitality, grace and fire allures you first before she undertakes a Hendriz-style test to demolition exploration of  the limits of her instrument." 
This isn't the same performer I saw in 1986, despite the coincidence of instruments and names. Japanese were well represented in the audience for this show, and some of them were clearly thrilled to have a chance to see Chikuzan.
The shamisen sounds like a banjo and is played with a plectrum the size and shape of a paint stripper. To a degree ( like English folk music) this kind of music  is an acquired taste, but it was an interesting and enjoyable performance.
[reviews by G. Cowie]