ShanghaiDaily.com – Michelle Zhang
This year’s Singapore Arts Festival features 1,758 performers in 24 separate main productions, showcasing the very finest theatrical talent of Asia and the world in a breathtaking explosion of the traditional and the cutting-edge, writes Michelle Zhang.
The word “exotic” would seldom be used to describe the island state of Singapore. However, this month, the Singapore Arts Festival brings a number of performances that may seem “exotic” even to an Asian audience.
Geisha, the very old, very unique cultural icon of Japan, is being revived on stage in Singapore TheatreWorks’ latest production “Geisha,” which premiered in Asia last Friday during the festival.
It’s not just exotic. In 90 minutes, the play uses the central metaphor of the geisha as a device to discuss life, dreams and reality, weaving together stories from geishas, maikos (apprentice geishas), patrons, their wives, okamisans (mama-sans), the offspring of geishas and even anthropologists. The fragmented elements were transformed into an integrated world, where the traditional meets the contemporary.
Renowned kabuki dancer Gojo Masanosuke, the female impersonator, appeared on stage with the full white make-up, the black accents at the corner of his eyes to heighten their shape, and a cherry-red drop for the mouth. Elegant and dignified, he introduced the audience to a geisha’s world – a world of dreams, beauty and artificiality – through a combination of the repertoire of both kabuki and nihon buyoh classical dance.