-
The Silk Drum a modern Noh
crédit photo : Christophe Raynaud de Lage
Press contactMyraRémi Fort [email protected]+33 1 40 33 79 13
DANCE | THEATER PRESS REVIEW
Stage direction and choreography Kaori Ito & Yoshi Oïda
Text Jean-Claude Carrière inspired by Yukio Mishima
With Kaori Ito Yoshi Oïda Makoto Yabuki
CreationOctober 2020, 23rd I 3:00pmOctober 2020, 24th I
11:00amOctober 2020, 25th I 11:00amOctober 2020, 26th I 11:00am
Semaine d’art en Avignon, Chapelle des Pénitents blancs
Then on tour Théâtre de la Ville - ParisMaison de la Culture
d'Amiens ..
-
Press extracts« Its two main performers proved a fascinating
pairing. The Japanese-born Ito
as become a versatile headliner within France’s contemporary
dance scene, and she teamed up here with the 87-year-old Yoshi
Oïda, a trained actor known for his
collaborations with the director Peter Brook. » The New York
Times – Laura Cappelle
« A beautiful Silk Drum carried by the wings of desire. (...)
He, a regular in Peter Brook's shows, known as the "Invisible
Actor". She dances like a flame, that dances
in all its forms. Their meeting is magnificent, they are above
age and time. » Le Monde – Brigitte Salino
« The choreographic performance that unites them across the age
pyramid is a love parade that is as irresistible as it is
unforgettable. »
Les Inrockuptibles – Patrick Sourd
« The play’s theme is haunted by deception, remorse and guilt
but The Silk Drum finds its universality far beyond these common
themes in an aesthetic of rapture,
coupled with tender humor, which is above time and borders. » La
Croix – Marie-Valentine Chaudon
« The Silk Drum is one of the little gems of this Avignon Art
Week. » France tv info – Sophie Jouve
« Kaori Ito unveils a dance of madness, where gesture and music
unfold in a single elusive breath and meet the intense aura of
Yoshi Oïda, who embodies the old man
now turned into a ghost. An organic ensemble and a subtle
tribute to Japanese culture. »
La Terrasse – Belinda Mathieu
« A worn-out old man, in love and humiliated (...) he is a
phenomenal presence sometimes light and assured, an invisible actor
in the omnipotence and mastery of
his art. » unfauteilpourlorchestre.com – Denis Sanglard
« Beyond a Noh, poetic and allegorical, this story is first of
all about encounters between generations. »
Resmusica – Delphine Goater
« Her latest creations are like "dances with the spirits": in a
year marked by separations, the Japanese choreographer and dancer
Kaori Ito summons the
ghosts of the dead to mourn them. » AFP – France Press
Agency
-
SummaryInternational press p.4 The New York Times – Laura
Cappelle
Daily newspaper p.7 Le Monde – Brigitte Salino p.9 La Croix –
Marie-Valentine Chaudon
Weekly magazine p.11 Les Inrockuptibles – Patrick Sourd
Monthly magazine p.14 La Terrasse – Belinda Mathieu
Audiovisual press p.16 France tv info – Sophie Jouve
Press agency p.21 AFP – France Press Agency
Web p.25 Un fauteuil pour l’orchestre – Denis Sanglard p. 27
Resmusica –Delphine Goater
-
The New York Times / Friday, 30th of October 2020
4
-
5
-
6
-
Le Monde / Wednesday, 28th of October 2020
A BEAUTIFUL SILK DRUM CARRIED BY THE WINGS OF DESIRE
The actor Yoshi Oïda and the dancer Kaori Ito revisit a modern
Noh by Mishima
THEATRE AVIGNON - special correspondent
Suddenly, the clouds have disappeared, the sky has turned blue
and the sun caresses the facades in Avignon. It is almost 11 a.m.,
on this Monday, 26 October, and spectators enter the Chapelle des
Pénitents Blancs where The Silk Drum will be performed for the last
time as part of Art Week in Avignon before it moves on to Paris. An
hour later, the spectators leave the room as if they were waking up
from a dream. The city is all the more beautiful for it, Avignon
exudes that sweetness that one feels when beauty and poetry are
combined with the theatre.
We can thank two Japanese artists who chose to live in France
for these feelings; the dancer Kaori Ito and the actor Yoshi Oïda.
She is a little over 40 years old and he is 87, they are friends
and they wanted to act together in one of the five modern Nohs of
Yukio Mishima (1925-1970), who was a friend of Yoshi Oïda. Like the
chain of friendships that brought us this Noh from Mishima, The
Silk Drum is part of a series of stories that originate from the
same storyline: an old man falls in love with a young woman, she
gives him a drum and says: "If you can make it sound, I am
yours"
The phantom and the beauty
But the drum, covered with silk, makes no sound. What happens
next varies according to the version, the author and the time that
the play was written. The phantom of time always lurks, and he
clips or sharpens the wings of desire. Kaori Ito and Yoshi Oïda
give this ghost the colours of today's bird of paradise: they
invite the audience to dream, in the night, of a theatre where an
old man comes to clean the stage. He wears an overcoat, he has
white hair, and he is frail. Maybe it's a ghost to haunt the young
dark-haired woman as she appears on stage. Dressed in red, she is a
beauty with her jet-black hair and slender body.
At the front of the stage, the drum is placed on a stool, it is
in the form of an hourglass. At the side, there are other drums
that do sound, these are some of the instruments that Makoto Yabuki
will play. As an accomplice of Kaori Ito and Yoshi Oïda, this
musician is the voice of the actors who hardly speak at all, but
who say everything. They are at two stages of life which separate
them but are linked by two arts and are linked by the transmission
that they bring to its climax.
He, a regular in Peter Brook's shows, known as the "Invisible
Actor" (after one of his books published by Actes Sud in 1995). She
dances like a flame, that dances in all its forms. Their meeting is
magnificent, they are above age and time. At the end of the play,
the young girl says to the old man: "If you had hit the drum just
once more, I might have heard it."
Brigitte Salino7
-
Le Monde / Mercredi 28 octobre 2020
8
-
La Croix.com / Thursday, 29th of October 2020
The poetic beauties of the Avignon Art Week Marie-Valentine
Chaudon, the 29/10/2020 at 8:53 pm
Interrupted on Thursday 29 October by the second lock-down, the
Avignon Art Week still had time to unveil some gems, proof of the
liveliness of a theatre in constant reinvention. Among the
highlights, the sublime Jeu des Ombres by Valère Novarina, directed
by Jean Bellorini, and The Silk Drum, a bubble of Japanese
poetry.
This story from a play by Yukio Mishima is a classic of Noh
theatre. Dancer Kaori Ito who worked with Alain Platel among
others, and the actor Yoshi Oïda, who was an actor with Peter
Brook, accompanied by the formidable musician Makoto Yabuki, weave
a show full of delicacy. The layout of the decor leaves room for
the expression of the bodies: the supple and undulating body of the
young dancer and the one marked by the years of the octogenarian.
He is twice the age of his partner but a spark of eternal youth
flows between them which gives its finesse to this magnificent duo,
linked by beautiful complicity.
The play’s theme is haunted by deception, remorse and guilt but
The Silk Drum finds its universality far beyond these common themes
in an aesthetic of rapture, coupled with tender humour, which is
above time and borders. By claiming, as the subtitle of the show,
"a modern Noh", Kaori Ito and Yoshi Oïda, who both live in France,
pose as joyful passers-by in this traditional window, which
resonates with the heart of Japan and a path of precious
imagination.
The Silk Drum is scheduled to tour at the Maison de la Culture
in Amiens on 17 and 18 December 2020, in Agen on 26 February 2021
and in Renens (Switzerland).
9
-
La Croix.com / Jeudi 29 octobre 2020
10
-
Les Inrockuptibles / Wednesday, 21st of October 2020
The Beating DrumThe actor Yoishi Oïda and the dancer Kaori Ito
revisit with an overpowering tenderness the timeless cruelty of one
of the monuments of Noh theatre.
ACCORDING TO THE TECHNIQUES OF AN ANCESTRAL JAPANESE CRAFT, the
use of braided silk is reserved for stringed instruments whereas
stretched skin is used for the manufacture of percussion
instruments. The idea of designing a silk drum is akin to the
invention of a chimaera which results in the creation of an
unnatural instrument, incapable of fulfilling the use for which it
was intended. The object could have been a simple theatrical prop,
but the art of Noh seized upon it to create the impossible
relationship that could exist between an old man and a young woman
by using the metaphor of the delicate question of sexual impotence
related to age.
Reunited for the first time in 2014 with Yumé, a project already
inspired by a Noh, actor Yoshi Oïda and dancer Kaori Ito meet on
the set to revive the centuries-old theatrical tradition in the
present day with The Silk Drum. After having been a great classic
of traditional Noh, the piece titled Aya no Tsuzumi in Japanese,
has been part of the contemporary repertoire since it appeared in
the collection of The Five Modern Noh Plays by Yukio Mishima in the
1950's. Inspired by the poet's revised version, Jean-Claude
Carrière prepared a tailor-made adaptation for the two artists of
this cruel tale.
While the little silk drum sits in the foreground, like the
forbidden fruit of a desire that is condemned to remain forever
unfulfilled, the show opens where everyone goes about their
business. A housekeeper (Yoshi Oïda) sweeps the stage one last
time, a musician (Makoto Yabuki) is busy with the percussion
instruments, and a dancer (Kaori Ito) warms up without paying
attention to the eyes of the two men. Everything flows from the
simplicity of this moment of grace. The mechanics of the drama
begin with the sweeper's confession of love at first sight and
prompt the dancer to respond, preferring to challenge him to sound
the fake drum to secure a liaison rather than to decline his
advances.
At the crossroads of their exemplary careers, this meeting
between Yoshi Oïda and Kaori Ito becomes a pretext for transmission
in an inversion of the relationship of knowledge between the actor
and the dancer. With her child-like figure and her irresistible
charm, she who fascinated us in the choreographies of Alain Platel
or the theatre of James Thierrée will become the initiator to he
who was the travelling companion of Peter Brook on his theatrical
adventures. So, what does it matter that the silence of the famous
silk drum remains deafening, it is with unparalleled happiness that
we discover Yoshi Oïda daring to dance for the first time at the
age of 87. Even if their immense bond tends to twist the story, the
choreographic performance that unites them across the age pyramid
is a love parade that is as irresistible as it is
unforgettable.
Patrick Sourd
11
-
Les Inrockuptibles Mercredi 21 octobre 2020
12
-
13
-
La Terrasse / October 2020
THÉÂTRE DE LA VILLE, ESPACE CARDIN / CHOREOGRAPHY AND STAGE
DIRECTION KAORI ITO AND YOSHI OÏDA
The Silk Drum
At the Espace Cardin theatre, Kaori Ito and Yoshi Oïda revisit
Noh, a traditional form of Japanese theatre.
A poetic encounter of two figures of the performing arts, Kaori
Ito and Yoshi Oïda, originally from Japan and exiled by choice
abroad. Kaori Ito is a dancer and choreographer, while Yoshi Oïda
is a director and Peter Brook's favourite actor. They share the
stage to recreate a Noh play (a traditional form of Japanese
musical and dance theatre) rewritten for the occasion by
Jean-Claude Carrière. In this strange tale, a princess imagines a
ploy to reject the advances of the old gardener at the castle. She
tells him to sound a drum otherwise she will not be his. But the
drum remains silent because it is made from silk. Kaori Ito unveils
a dance of madness, where gesture and music unfold in a single
elusive breath and meet the intense aura of Yoshi Oïda, who
embodies the old man now turned into a ghost. An organic ensemble
and a subtle tribute to Japanese culture.
Belinda Mathieu
14
-
La Terrasse
15
-
Francetvinfo.fr / Sunday, 25th of October 2020
During the Art Week in Avignon, dancer Kaori Ito sets the
audience’s hearts beating in "The Silk Drum" Article by Sophie
Jouve France Télévisions Culture Editorial
Dancer Kaori Ito and actor Yoshi Oïda, one of Peter Brook’s
iconic performers, modernise a classic of Noh theatre.
Magnificent.
In front of the Chapelle des Pénitents blancs in Avignon, the
queue is long, even though the room is nearly full. The Silk Drum
interpreted by Kaori Ito and Yoshi Oïda is one of the little gems
of this Avignon Art Week, which has enabled us to discover some of
the shows that were cancelled in July due to Covid19.
Yoshi Oïda entrusted the adaptation of this story to Jean-Claude
Carrière. A story of desire, guilt and transmission between a young
woman who is feeling the effects of time and an elderly man who
still feels young. The man is sweeping the stage of a theatre and
falls in love with a dancer who is rehearsing with her musician.
She promises to be his if he can get a sound out of the silk
drum.
A dancer seduces an old man
Kaori Ito, with her slender figure and all her charm and
playfulness, plays the part of this dancer who seduces the old man.
The old man is played with surprising youthfulness by 87-year-old,
Yoshi Oïda, the unforgettable travelling companion of Peter Brook
(The Tempest, Mahabharata…).
After the show, Kaori tells us : "This is the first time that I
have danced in a kimono with a traditional text, I needed to test
my identity in France without going through the Japanese
stereotypes. Today, I am coming back here so as not to be a tourist
in my own culture."
It is with a dance that is much more suggestive as the dancer
and the old man begin to discover each other: she vibrates her
whole body, while he is shy, embarrassed and modest. Then little by
little, they discover each other's bodies, in a union of the same
breath. The resigned old man stands up, gains confidence, seems to
believe in the nod of his fate.
The impossible challenge
But there, placed in the centre of the stage, this drum in the
form of an hourglass, symbol of the impossible challenge set by the
dancer who could not find the words to decline the old man's
advances. The drama then points to who will summon the parallel
universes which are so dear to Japanese society ...
On the stage, a long silk curtain like a waterfall, and the
traditional instruments of the musician Makoto Yabuki: drum,
flutes, bamboo xylophone… The precise staging combines music and
dance in symbiosis.
Thanks to the complicity of Yoshi Oïda, her second father as she
calls him, the cruel tale is transformed into a universal story of
transmission.
16
-
Kaori Ito, who we first discovered in Iris by Decouflé, Plexus
by Aurélien Bory and the shows by James Thierrée and Alain Platel,
has been creating more personal creations for some years with her
own company. This autumn six shows in which she performs are on the
bill, including Embrase-moi where she dances naked with her circus
companion Théo Touvet or Chers show for six performers on the theme
of ancestors.
"A 10-star show"
When discovering The Silk Drum, we think of another show where
Kaori danced with another old man, her father with whom she
reconciled in Je danse parce que je me méfie des mots (2015).
"This story of impossible love is a 10-star show," said Magda at
the end of the show, "how lucky I was to have a seat!"
Pilla, who was very disappointed with the cancellation of the
festival in July, welcomed this week of art: "why not make it
permanent in addition to the festival?", she suggested.
"The Silk Drum, a modern Noh"
Directed by Kaori Ito and Yoshi Oïda
Art week in Avignon From 23 to 26 October at 2 p.m. Chapelle des
Pénitents blancs Place de la Principal, 84000, Avignon
Then on tour From 29 October to 1 November 2020 in Paris
-Théâtre de la Ville From 17 to 18 November 2020 Amiens – La Maison
de la Culture, Amiens 26 February 2021 Agen - Théâtre Ducourneau
From 21 to 25 April 2021 Renens - Théâtre Kléber-Méleau
17
-
Francetvinfo.fr / Dimanche 25 octobre 2020
18
-
19
-
20
-
AFP - France Press Agency
Kaori Ito, the choreographer who makes ghosts dance
Her latest creations are like "dances with the spirits": in a
year marked by separations, the Japanese choreographer and dancer
Kaori Ito summons the ghosts of the dead to mourn them.
The artist, who has lived in France for 15 years, is performing
more and more this Autumn, appearing in several shows from Avignon
to Paris, after having fed on the "void" created by confinement and
especially the desire to get back on stage.
Haunted by the representation of absence on stage, she believes
more than ever in what she "does not see".
"Long before the lockdown, I reflected on how to work with the
invisible around us," the 40-year-old choreographer told AFP.
"In this collapsing world, we feel more the presence of those
who are not with us," said the artist who has danced for the big
names in contemporary dance, from Philippe Decouflé to Sidi Larbi
Cherkaoui and Angelin Preljocaj.
- "It is like wifi waves" -
"Without touching each other, we can touch people," says the
dancer trained in classical ballet in Japan and modern dance in the
United States.
In Avignon, the renowned Festival which was cancelled this
summer is organizing an Art Week until 31 October, it is presenting
The Silk Drum, with one of Peter Brook’s legendary actors Yoshi
Oïda, who is 87 years old.
The show, which will tour at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris
and the Maison de la Culture in Amiens, among others, is inspired
by a Noh classic - a form of traditional Japanese theatre mixing
poetic texts, songs, dance and music.
"If you can make my drum sound, I will be yours," the dancer
says to an old man who has fallen in love with her. The instrument
which is made of silk remains silent, leading the old man to
suicide before his ghost comes back to haunt the dancer.
"In Japan, ghosts are important, they are ancestors who protect
us. In the West, we associate them with horror films", underlines
the artist from the city of Toyohashi.
"Spirits are like wifi waves, you can't see them, but they are
there," she laughs.
Kaori Ito, who runs her own company Himé, summoned spirits in
another way this summer.
During the lockdown, when funerals were restricted for
relatives, she suggested to the director of the Théâtre de la
Colline in Paris, Wajdi Mouawad, to install "a telephone booth
where people could speak to their departed".
"It is already used in Japan, after the tsunami people felt very
guilty for not having saved their loved ones, for having let go of
their baby's hand," says Kaori Ito, who has a little boy of her
own.
21
-
At La Colline, nearly 200 people took part in the experience,
giving rise to the project "The word channel" (which takes place
every Saturday at the theatre where Kaori guides participants who
testify anonymously). "It's to heal the soul," she said.
With their agreement, she recovered a hundred recordings to use
them in her other creation, Chers, which will begin on November 4
at the Centquatre, in Paris, where she is an associate artist.
They are mingled with letters written by the five dancers of the
play to their missing relatives and are read by an actress who acts
as a "shaman, a ferryman of souls".
“On stage, the dancers are like souls that fly very quickly,”
she says.
The show is also inspired by the dramaturgy of the Noh theatre
where there is always a part written for ghosts and the aim is to
appease the soul.
"There has been a lot of pain, a lot of suffering this year, the
theatre had to be there to fluidise negative energy," explains the
choreographer.
Other shows by Kaori Ito appeal more to the flesh than to
spirituality. At La Scala Paris, she resumes Embrase-moi (2017),
where she and her companion, the circus artist Théo Touvet, share
their past sexual experiences before dancing naked and presenting
an astonishing number of Cyr wheels.
"I often combine dialogue and dance, but the body expresses
itself better than words", she says.
22
-
AFP / Samedi 24 octobre 2020
23
-
Publiésur:LaCroix.com;France24.com...
24
-
Un fauteuil pour l’orchestre.com / Saturday, 31st of October
2020
The Silk Drum, a modern Noh, staged and choreographed by Kaori
Ito and Yoshi Oïda, Théâtre de la Ville - Paris / Espace Cardin
*
ƒƒƒ article by Denis Sanglard
There are suspended and fragile moments, of infinite and
miraculous grace, that external events make brutally acute and
painful. It was a premiere night, but it was also a final night. A
final raising of the curtain before a new lockdown that will last a
month or probably two. And a presidential speech where, in the face
of the devastation that loomed, there was no mention of culture
...
An old man falls in love with a dancer who rehearses on the
stage which he is sweeping away the madness of a traditional Noh.
The young girl hands him a silk drum and promises him that she will
be his if he can make it sound. But the surface of the drum is
silk, the task is impossible. The humiliated old man chooses to
die. His blood covered ghost comes to haunt the young girl.
Originally from a Noh adapted by Yukio Mishima, Jean-Claude
Carrière was inspired by this latest version to make his blueprint.
On stage, there is the trio Yoshi Oïda, Kaori Ito and the musician
Makoto Yabuki.
Yoshi Oïda and Kaori Ito, an obvious meeting. This Noh is a
pretext inspired by Japanese art, at the crossroads of East and
West, like its two expatriate performers who draw their originality
and inspiration from Japan. Noh, yes for art that combines theatre
and dance in the same movement. And this movement into stillness
and breath. Stillness and breath which participate in the dance. A
story of an inhabited body. The fragility of Yoshi Oïda, the
companion of Peter Brook, who dances for the first time, at 87
years of age. A worn-out old man, in love and humiliated or
bloodied and vengeful, he is a phenomenal presence sometimes light
and assured, an invisible actor in the omnipotence and mastery of
his art, of his long experience, which disappears before our eyes
and gives way with humility to the place of his character. Yoshi
Oïda does not act a part, he becomes that part. According to
Claudel’s definition of Noh, "Noh is someone who arrives".
Consequently, with him, all that is theatricality and tragedy is to
come. That is what he carries with him when he walks on stage with
brush and bucket in hand, Yoshi Oïda. That is what is fascinating.
Kaori Ito is that fiery, stubborn flame clad in red, unbridled
grace and keen force, closely woven together. A protean dance that
moves bravely into an unknown but still conquered territory. Like
so many questions about her art and her identity. Between these
two, these two exceptional artists, a story of transmission, of
tenuous filiation. Where time nor age matter. A complicity, an
intimacy, which moves to tears and which bursts to the rhythm of
the percussion of Makoto Yabuki, reflections, echoes of the
troubled feelings which cross these bodies which express so much
when words fail, the verb lies, the silence howls, the breath
betrays.
* due to lockdown, the performance will be streamed live on
Friday 30 October at 7 p.m. and on 31 Saturday at 3 p.m. on the
website of the Théâtre de la Ville - Paris and live on Facebook,
without an audience in the room.
25
-
Un fauteuil pour l’orchestre.com / Samedi 31 octobre 2020
26
-
Resmusica.com / Tuesday, 3rd of November 2020
The Silk Drum, a modern Noh: the old man and the dancer The last
night before lock-down at the Théâtre de la Ville - Espace Cardin,
where Kaori Ito and Yoshi Oïda performed The Silk Drum, a
contemporary version of a modern Noh by Mishima adapted by
Jean-Claude Carrière. Created at the Maison de la Culture in Amiens
in March and resumed during the Art Week in Avignon at the end of
October, it is a moving encounter between an old man and a dancer
that says a lot about today's relationships between
generations.
Mythical performer Peter Brook, notably in Mahabharata and The
Tempest, Yoshi Oïda, 87 years old, dances for the first time in
this adaptation of a legendary story from Noh theatre, where
Jean-Claude Carrière was inspired by Yukio Mishima’s adaptation of
The Silk Drum. The show tells the story of an old man, a handyman
in a theatre, who admires the young dancer he sees rehearsing on
stage. Cruel, the young woman hands her admirer a silk drum, asking
him to accompany her. But the instrument produces no sound.
Beyond a Noh, poetic and allegorical, this story is first of all
about encounters between generations and takes on a particular
resonance with today’s situation. Old people who still wish to have
the right to desire and young people who sometimes lack benevolence
and a spirit of solidarity, this is also what this poignant play
tells us. Despite its universal appeal, it also seems rooted in
Japanese society, where modest elderly people are often obliged to
take low paid jobs to make up for their meagre pensions.
Comedian Yoshi Oïda is extraordinary when he dances, slowly.
Each gesture, each movement executed in slow motion makes it
possible to imagine his movement in a kimono if he was wearing one.
Instead of this traditional garment, he wears the beige work
garment of the stage technician who turns on the lights and turns
off the ghost lamp and sweeps the stage that smells of dust. He
speaks French with hesitation, which makes his diction even more
fragile. His is a touching and sensitive character, unlike the
dancer, sure of her art and her youth, on the stage.
Kaori Ito, a classically trained dancer, masters all the
choreographic styles she uses in the show, from traditional
Japanese rambyoshi dance to contemporary dances. This eclecticism
is the weak point of the show because it muddies the waters a bit.
Between the traditional Japanese show rehearsed by the character of
the dancer and the contemporary improvisations of the
choreographer, we do not have the impression of a common stylistic
thread, and the choreographic writing sometimes lacks creativity or
rigour.
This weakness matters little, as we are carried away by the
authenticity of the old actor who takes the stage with vigour,
sporting a serene smile. Facing him, the young dancer gradually
abandons her certainties to let herself be moved by the old man and
her emotion arises, to the distant sound of a radio cassette.
Throughout the show, this delicate encounter is highlighted by the
instruments of Makoto Yabuki, traditional instruments such as the
bamboo flutes of the Noh theatre, but also the South American
flute, Japanese drums or the bamboo xylophone.
27
-
Resmusica.com / Mardi 3 novembre 2020
28
-
29