context: theatre > noh

Form of Noh

Donald Keene's definition: "it is a dramatic poem concerned with remote or supernatural events, performed by a dancer, often masked, who shares with lesser personages and a chorus the singing and declamation of the poetry." I've also seen it said that Noh is "Zen expressing itself in dramatic art". Plays tended to be deeply melancholy stories of loss and death, when there is anything we could call a story. They are slow, performed with accompanying flute and drum, with masked actors. Programmes of plays are generally interleaved with comic interludes called kyogen, played by different actors, as light relief. There are two basic Noh story forms: realistic and 'mugen', meaning something like 'ghostly dream', this latter split into plays about warriors and about women.

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