Friday, March 06, 2009

Complicite in Tokyo

We were at the first night.  Complicite did not disappoint.  The cast enters in a line.  A brief introduction. Then things start happening. Curtains rise.  Birds flutter.  Actors rapidly change in the dusk.
Butoh, Bunraku, Kabuki elements were there.
Physical and ensemble theatre too. 
Tanizaki presents this impossible girl to us. A blind bitch.  And an unctuous servant/lover Sasuke.
A Brechtian narrator.  But mainly magical moments and visual splendour.  Do Complicite just illuminate but not inhabit?
At the end the curtain rises again to reveal white light, a line of actors and the cinematic display of crowds in modern Tokyo.  We are back to earth.