Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Medieval vs. Japanese

Medieval theater was very well known, and it was very well recognized, yet it was easily confused by other acts, and others were lost because they lack literary sources. At that time most plays hardly consist of  written scripts because few can write, and about the same could read. At that time a lot of the plays related to religion, or it portrayed morality, and the importance of morals. One of the most notable types of theatre was the pageant wagons. The actors were on a moving stage and they moved around the quad.

Pageant Wagons

Japanese theater has several variations, but the most famous is the "kabuki". As stated in Wikipedia, "Kabuki is a type of theatre that combines music, drama, and dance." It was a great success with the use of real swords and such a "real-life" experience. Another type of art is the "bunraku" which consist of puppet-like shows. the audience sees the characters being controlled by actors/performers who are underneath a black cloak. At times, the cloaked actors would control humans, as puppets as well.

Bunraku

Nowadays we can see more work from Japanese theatre than Medieval theatre not necessarily because its better, but because in japan, more people were literate, and in medieval times literacy was a big issue. 

[edit]

No comments:

Post a Comment