Get To Know the New Noh Play: "Nue"

Friday July 10, 2009

That's right, the new Noh Play Nue. Try saying that three times fast!

Noh Plays are an ancient form of Japanese theater that has been around since the 1400s. Like other dramatic art forms from centuries ago, Noh theater was practiced by male actors who wore theater masks to portray different characters: brave warriors, pious monks, beautiful maidens, frightening ghosts, and mysterious monsters.

The New National Theater in Tokyo recently premiered a new adaptation of Zeami Motokiyo's play, titled Nue. This reworking of a Japanese classic begins with traditional Noh elements, including a mythical creature that appears as a woman but is actually a monkey-badger-tiger-snake monster. (How awesome is that?) However, in the second part of the play takes place at an airport in Vietnam. The story integrates contemporary characters, mingling with the mystical forces of the past.