Experiment and Tradition. New Plays in the Bunraku Theatre

Abstract

HE Japanese puppet theatre, or Bunraku as it is known today, claims a history of some three hundred years. Unlike puppet theatres in the West, for most of these three centuries Bunraku has been serious adult theatre, producing more dramatic masterpieces than has its better-known rival, Kabuki. Indeed, if Kabuki were deprived of its plays which were originally created for the puppet theatre, it would lose probably half its repertoire. In many ways Kabuki has proved more adaptable than Bunraku to the demands of modern times: its actors often appear in films and television programs, and it has introduced into its stock of plays a number of new works which have demonstrated a certain staying power. The very uniqueness of the puppet theatre, on the other hand, deprives it of some of these advantages. The close inter-relationship of its dramatic parts-the puppets and their operators, the musicians and the narrators-makes it difficult for them to enjoy separately so extensive an artistic life outside the theatre. Similarly, the traditions of the puppet theatre, which require a snug mix of narrative form and dialogue plus music and an emphasis on excellence in literary style, place tough conditions on any new candidates for its stage. A glance at almost any schedule of Bunraku performances quickly shows how dependent the puppet theatre is even today upon a repertoire that has admitted only a handful of new works in the past century. And what new plays have been accepted demonstrate far more adherence to tradition than any flirting with experimentation. When I have asked Japanese why they do not frequent the puppet theatre, they usually reply as follows: the language and delivery are hard to understand, the values do not seem to relate to modern life, and the relevance of the characters and plots has at best a tenuous connection with modern experience. The Bunraku theatre has doubtless been receiving this sort of criticism for a long time. Faced in the immediate postwar years with a steady whittling away of already small Bunraku audiences as they were captured by competing forms of entertainment, the management decided to try to remedy the deteriorating situation.