2015年の夏、ギリシャは経済危機の真っただ中だった。同じ夏、観世流の能楽師になった大学時代の友人、正確にはその一門がギリシャの世界最古の劇場で日本の能を舞うというので、東西の演劇人の情熱に引っ張られて混乱のギリシャに乗り込んだ。招聘先のギリシャ人の演出家によると、能は西欧演劇が失った「見えないものとの交信」を今でも実践しているというのだ。
「エピダウロスの夏」(Japanese only): materiaprima.site/noh-in-epidaurus/
Back in 2015, the Greece was in confusion. EU announced the critical economic crisis of this country and mentioned that they can ‘no longer support’. Meanwhile, I went to see the Athens Epidaurus Art Festival in Greece same year, the one of the oldest art festivals taken place every summer.
According to the producer Michael Marmarinos, Noh, the Japanese theater that started since 6th century, was the oldest form of theater to communicate with god. He wanted to invite this performance in order to share the ancient form of Western theater to communicate with the spirit that one don’t see.
A friend of mine from college, Kohei Kawaguchi, the young Noh actor, took part in this performance accompanied by his master, Gensho Umewaka. I could not resist not witnessing the opportunity when Noh landing in the Ancient Theater of Epidaurus, the first ever made theater of human era.
The performance was consisted of two parts: newly made Noh interpreting ‘The Odyssey’ and classic Noh pieces. The former was played at night and the latter was played in the next morning, as early as 6 am. Surprisingly, the ancient theater was full of people who came to see the performances in the early morning by driving to Epidaurus theater from Athens without much sleep. I almost wanted to give huge gratitude to all the audience.
The sound of drum, whistle and voices echoing throughout the crispy air of Greece, it was unforgettable experience that the ancient spirit traveled beyond the continent.
The news of the Greek economic crisis sounded like a BGM to me.