The Silk Drum a modern Noh

crédit photo : Christophe Raynaud de Lage

Press contactMyraRémi Fort myra@myra.fr+33 1 40 33 79 13

DANCE | THEATER PRESS REVIEW

Stage direction and choreography Kaori Ito & Yoshi Oïda

Text Jean-Claude Carrière inspired by Yukio Mishima

With Kaori Ito Yoshi Oïda Makoto Yabuki

CreationOctober 2020, 23rd I 3:00pmOctober 2020, 24th I 11:00amOctober 2020, 25th I 11:00amOctober 2020, 26th I 11:00am

Semaine d’art en Avignon, Chapelle des Pénitents blancs

Then on tour Théâtre de la Ville - ParisMaison de la Culture d'Amiens ..

Press extracts« Its two main performers proved a fascinating pairing. The Japanese-born Ito

as become a versatile headliner within France’s contemporary dance scene, and she teamed up here with the 87-year-old Yoshi Oïda, a trained actor known for his

collaborations with the director Peter Brook. » The New York Times – Laura Cappelle

« A beautiful Silk Drum carried by the wings of desire. (...) He, a regular in Peter Brook's shows, known as the "Invisible Actor". She dances like a flame, that dances

in all its forms. Their meeting is magnificent, they are above age and time. » Le Monde – Brigitte Salino

« The choreographic performance that unites them across the age pyramid is a love parade that is as irresistible as it is unforgettable. »

Les Inrockuptibles – Patrick Sourd

« The play’s theme is haunted by deception, remorse and guilt but The Silk Drum finds its universality far beyond these common themes in an aesthetic of rapture,

coupled with tender humor, which is above time and borders. » La Croix – Marie-Valentine Chaudon

« The Silk Drum is one of the little gems of this Avignon Art Week. » France tv info – Sophie Jouve

« Kaori Ito unveils a dance of madness, where gesture and music unfold in a single elusive breath and meet the intense aura of Yoshi Oïda, who embodies the old man

now turned into a ghost. An organic ensemble and a subtle tribute to Japanese culture. »

La Terrasse – Belinda Mathieu

« A worn-out old man, in love and humiliated (...) he is a phenomenal presence sometimes light and assured, an invisible actor in the omnipotence and mastery of

his art. » unfauteilpourlorchestre.com – Denis Sanglard

« Beyond a Noh, poetic and allegorical, this story is first of all about encounters between generations. »

Resmusica – Delphine Goater

« Her latest creations are like "dances with the spirits": in a year marked by separations, the Japanese choreographer and dancer Kaori Ito summons the

ghosts of the dead to mourn them. » AFP – France Press Agency

SummaryInternational press p.4 The New York Times – Laura Cappelle

Daily newspaper p.7 Le Monde – Brigitte Salino p.9 La Croix – Marie-Valentine Chaudon

Weekly magazine p.11 Les Inrockuptibles – Patrick Sourd

Monthly magazine p.14 La Terrasse – Belinda Mathieu

Audiovisual press p.16 France tv info – Sophie Jouve

Press agency p.21 AFP – France Press Agency

Web p.25 Un fauteuil pour l’orchestre – Denis Sanglard p. 27 Resmusica –Delphine Goater

The New York Times / Friday, 30th of October 2020

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Le Monde / Wednesday, 28th of October 2020

A BEAUTIFUL SILK DRUM CARRIED BY THE WINGS OF DESIRE

The actor Yoshi Oïda and the dancer Kaori Ito revisit a modern Noh by Mishima

THEATRE AVIGNON - special correspondent

Suddenly, the clouds have disappeared, the sky has turned blue and the sun caresses the facades in Avignon. It is almost 11 a.m., on this Monday, 26 October, and spectators enter the Chapelle des Pénitents Blancs where The Silk Drum will be performed for the last time as part of Art Week in Avignon before it moves on to Paris. An hour later, the spectators leave the room as if they were waking up from a dream. The city is all the more beautiful for it, Avignon exudes that sweetness that one feels when beauty and poetry are combined with the theatre.

We can thank two Japanese artists who chose to live in France for these feelings; the dancer Kaori Ito and the actor Yoshi Oïda. She is a little over 40 years old and he is 87, they are friends and they wanted to act together in one of the five modern Nohs of Yukio Mishima (1925-1970), who was a friend of Yoshi Oïda. Like the chain of friendships that brought us this Noh from Mishima, The Silk Drum is part of a series of stories that originate from the same storyline: an old man falls in love with a young woman, she gives him a drum and says: "If you can make it sound, I am yours"

The phantom and the beauty

But the drum, covered with silk, makes no sound. What happens next varies according to the version, the author and the time that the play was written. The phantom of time always lurks, and he clips or sharpens the wings of desire. Kaori Ito and Yoshi Oïda give this ghost the colours of today's bird of paradise: they invite the audience to dream, in the night, of a theatre where an old man comes to clean the stage. He wears an overcoat, he has white hair, and he is frail. Maybe it's a ghost to haunt the young dark-haired woman as she appears on stage. Dressed in red, she is a beauty with her jet-black hair and slender body.

At the front of the stage, the drum is placed on a stool, it is in the form of an hourglass. At the side, there are other drums that do sound, these are some of the instruments that Makoto Yabuki will play. As an accomplice of Kaori Ito and Yoshi Oïda, this musician is the voice of the actors who hardly speak at all, but who say everything. They are at two stages of life which separate them but are linked by two arts and are linked by the transmission that they bring to its climax.

He, a regular in Peter Brook's shows, known as the "Invisible Actor" (after one of his books published by Actes Sud in 1995). She dances like a flame, that dances in all its forms. Their meeting is magnificent, they are above age and time. At the end of the play, the young girl says to the old man: "If you had hit the drum just once more, I might have heard it."

Brigitte Salino7

Le Monde / Mercredi 28 octobre 2020

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La Croix.com / Thursday, 29th of October 2020

The poetic beauties of the Avignon Art Week Marie-Valentine Chaudon, the 29/10/2020 at 8:53 pm

Interrupted on Thursday 29 October by the second lock-down, the Avignon Art Week still had time to unveil some gems, proof of the liveliness of a theatre in constant reinvention. Among the highlights, the sublime Jeu des Ombres by Valère Novarina, directed by Jean Bellorini, and The Silk Drum, a bubble of Japanese poetry.

This story from a play by Yukio Mishima is a classic of Noh theatre. Dancer Kaori Ito who worked with Alain Platel among others, and the actor Yoshi Oïda, who was an actor with Peter Brook, accompanied by the formidable musician Makoto Yabuki, weave a show full of delicacy. The layout of the decor leaves room for the expression of the bodies: the supple and undulating body of the young dancer and the one marked by the years of the octogenarian. He is twice the age of his partner but a spark of eternal youth flows between them which gives its finesse to this magnificent duo, linked by beautiful complicity.

The play’s theme is haunted by deception, remorse and guilt but The Silk Drum finds its universality far beyond these common themes in an aesthetic of rapture, coupled with tender humour, which is above time and borders. By claiming, as the subtitle of the show, "a modern Noh", Kaori Ito and Yoshi Oïda, who both live in France, pose as joyful passers-by in this traditional window, which resonates with the heart of Japan and a path of precious imagination.

The Silk Drum is scheduled to tour at the Maison de la Culture in Amiens on 17 and 18 December 2020, in Agen on 26 February 2021 and in Renens (Switzerland).

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La Croix.com / Jeudi 29 octobre 2020

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Les Inrockuptibles / Wednesday, 21st of October 2020

The Beating DrumThe actor Yoishi Oïda and the dancer Kaori Ito revisit with an overpowering tenderness the timeless cruelty of one of the monuments of Noh theatre.

ACCORDING TO THE TECHNIQUES OF AN ANCESTRAL JAPANESE CRAFT, the use of braided silk is reserved for stringed instruments whereas stretched skin is used for the manufacture of percussion instruments. The idea of designing a silk drum is akin to the invention of a chimaera which results in the creation of an unnatural instrument, incapable of fulfilling the use for which it was intended. The object could have been a simple theatrical prop, but the art of Noh seized upon it to create the impossible relationship that could exist between an old man and a young woman by using the metaphor of the delicate question of sexual impotence related to age.

Reunited for the first time in 2014 with Yumé, a project already inspired by a Noh, actor Yoshi Oïda and dancer Kaori Ito meet on the set to revive the centuries-old theatrical tradition in the present day with The Silk Drum. After having been a great classic of traditional Noh, the piece titled Aya no Tsuzumi in Japanese, has been part of the contemporary repertoire since it appeared in the collection of The Five Modern Noh Plays by Yukio Mishima in the 1950's. Inspired by the poet's revised version, Jean-Claude Carrière prepared a tailor-made adaptation for the two artists of this cruel tale.

While the little silk drum sits in the foreground, like the forbidden fruit of a desire that is condemned to remain forever unfulfilled, the show opens where everyone goes about their business. A housekeeper (Yoshi Oïda) sweeps the stage one last time, a musician (Makoto Yabuki) is busy with the percussion instruments, and a dancer (Kaori Ito) warms up without paying attention to the eyes of the two men. Everything flows from the simplicity of this moment of grace. The mechanics of the drama begin with the sweeper's confession of love at first sight and prompt the dancer to respond, preferring to challenge him to sound the fake drum to secure a liaison rather than to decline his advances.

At the crossroads of their exemplary careers, this meeting between Yoshi Oïda and Kaori Ito becomes a pretext for transmission in an inversion of the relationship of knowledge between the actor and the dancer. With her child-like figure and her irresistible charm, she who fascinated us in the choreographies of Alain Platel or the theatre of James Thierrée will become the initiator to he who was the travelling companion of Peter Brook on his theatrical adventures. So, what does it matter that the silence of the famous silk drum remains deafening, it is with unparalleled happiness that we discover Yoshi Oïda daring to dance for the first time at the age of 87. Even if their immense bond tends to twist the story, the choreographic performance that unites them across the age pyramid is a love parade that is as irresistible as it is unforgettable.

Patrick Sourd

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Les Inrockuptibles Mercredi 21 octobre 2020

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La Terrasse / October 2020

THÉÂTRE DE LA VILLE, ESPACE CARDIN / CHOREOGRAPHY AND STAGE DIRECTION KAORI ITO AND YOSHI OÏDA

The Silk Drum

At the Espace Cardin theatre, Kaori Ito and Yoshi Oïda revisit Noh, a traditional form of Japanese theatre.

A poetic encounter of two figures of the performing arts, Kaori Ito and Yoshi Oïda, originally from Japan and exiled by choice abroad. Kaori Ito is a dancer and choreographer, while Yoshi Oïda is a director and Peter Brook's favourite actor. They share the stage to recreate a Noh play (a traditional form of Japanese musical and dance theatre) rewritten for the occasion by Jean-Claude Carrière. In this strange tale, a princess imagines a ploy to reject the advances of the old gardener at the castle. She tells him to sound a drum otherwise she will not be his. But the drum remains silent because it is made from silk. Kaori Ito unveils a dance of madness, where gesture and music unfold in a single elusive breath and meet the intense aura of Yoshi Oïda, who embodies the old man now turned into a ghost. An organic ensemble and a subtle tribute to Japanese culture.

Belinda Mathieu

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La Terrasse

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Francetvinfo.fr / Sunday, 25th of October 2020

During the Art Week in Avignon, dancer Kaori Ito sets the audience’s hearts beating in "The Silk Drum" Article by Sophie Jouve France Télévisions Culture Editorial

Dancer Kaori Ito and actor Yoshi Oïda, one of Peter Brook’s iconic performers, modernise a classic of Noh theatre. Magnificent.

In front of the Chapelle des Pénitents blancs in Avignon, the queue is long, even though the room is nearly full. The Silk Drum interpreted by Kaori Ito and Yoshi Oïda is one of the little gems of this Avignon Art Week, which has enabled us to discover some of the shows that were cancelled in July due to Covid19.

Yoshi Oïda entrusted the adaptation of this story to Jean-Claude Carrière. A story of desire, guilt and transmission between a young woman who is feeling the effects of time and an elderly man who still feels young. The man is sweeping the stage of a theatre and falls in love with a dancer who is rehearsing with her musician. She promises to be his if he can get a sound out of the silk drum.

A dancer seduces an old man

Kaori Ito, with her slender figure and all her charm and playfulness, plays the part of this dancer who seduces the old man. The old man is played with surprising youthfulness by 87-year-old, Yoshi Oïda, the unforgettable travelling companion of Peter Brook (The Tempest, Mahabharata…).

After the show, Kaori tells us : "This is the first time that I have danced in a kimono with a traditional text, I needed to test my identity in France without going through the Japanese stereotypes. Today, I am coming back here so as not to be a tourist in my own culture."

It is with a dance that is much more suggestive as the dancer and the old man begin to discover each other: she vibrates her whole body, while he is shy, embarrassed and modest. Then little by little, they discover each other's bodies, in a union of the same breath. The resigned old man stands up, gains confidence, seems to believe in the nod of his fate.

The impossible challenge

But there, placed in the centre of the stage, this drum in the form of an hourglass, symbol of the impossible challenge set by the dancer who could not find the words to decline the old man's advances. The drama then points to who will summon the parallel universes which are so dear to Japanese society ...

On the stage, a long silk curtain like a waterfall, and the traditional instruments of the musician Makoto Yabuki: drum, flutes, bamboo xylophone… The precise staging combines music and dance in symbiosis.

Thanks to the complicity of Yoshi Oïda, her second father as she calls him, the cruel tale is transformed into a universal story of transmission.

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Kaori Ito, who we first discovered in Iris by Decouflé, Plexus by Aurélien Bory and the shows by James Thierrée and Alain Platel, has been creating more personal creations for some years with her own company. This autumn six shows in which she performs are on the bill, including Embrase-moi where she dances naked with her circus companion Théo Touvet or Chers show for six performers on the theme of ancestors.

"A 10-star show"

When discovering The Silk Drum, we think of another show where Kaori danced with another old man, her father with whom she reconciled in Je danse parce que je me méfie des mots (2015).

"This story of impossible love is a 10-star show," said Magda at the end of the show, "how lucky I was to have a seat!"

Pilla, who was very disappointed with the cancellation of the festival in July, welcomed this week of art: "why not make it permanent in addition to the festival?", she suggested.

"The Silk Drum, a modern Noh"

Directed by Kaori Ito and Yoshi Oïda

Art week in Avignon From 23 to 26 October at 2 p.m. Chapelle des Pénitents blancs Place de la Principal, 84000, Avignon

Then on tour From 29 October to 1 November 2020 in Paris -Théâtre de la Ville From 17 to 18 November 2020 Amiens – La Maison de la Culture, Amiens 26 February 2021 Agen - Théâtre Ducourneau From 21 to 25 April 2021 Renens - Théâtre Kléber-Méleau

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Francetvinfo.fr / Dimanche 25 octobre 2020

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AFP - France Press Agency

Kaori Ito, the choreographer who makes ghosts dance

Her latest creations are like "dances with the spirits": in a year marked by separations, the Japanese choreographer and dancer Kaori Ito summons the ghosts of the dead to mourn them.

The artist, who has lived in France for 15 years, is performing more and more this Autumn, appearing in several shows from Avignon to Paris, after having fed on the "void" created by confinement and especially the desire to get back on stage.

Haunted by the representation of absence on stage, she believes more than ever in what she "does not see".

"Long before the lockdown, I reflected on how to work with the invisible around us," the 40-year-old choreographer told AFP.

"In this collapsing world, we feel more the presence of those who are not with us," said the artist who has danced for the big names in contemporary dance, from Philippe Decouflé to Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Angelin Preljocaj.

- "It is like wifi waves" -

"Without touching each other, we can touch people," says the dancer trained in classical ballet in Japan and modern dance in the United States.

In Avignon, the renowned Festival which was cancelled this summer is organizing an Art Week until 31 October, it is presenting The Silk Drum, with one of Peter Brook’s legendary actors Yoshi Oïda, who is 87 years old.

The show, which will tour at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris and the Maison de la Culture in Amiens, among others, is inspired by a Noh classic - a form of traditional Japanese theatre mixing poetic texts, songs, dance and music.

"If you can make my drum sound, I will be yours," the dancer says to an old man who has fallen in love with her. The instrument which is made of silk remains silent, leading the old man to suicide before his ghost comes back to haunt the dancer.

"In Japan, ghosts are important, they are ancestors who protect us. In the West, we associate them with horror films", underlines the artist from the city of Toyohashi.

"Spirits are like wifi waves, you can't see them, but they are there," she laughs.

Kaori Ito, who runs her own company Himé, summoned spirits in another way this summer.

During the lockdown, when funerals were restricted for relatives, she suggested to the director of the Théâtre de la Colline in Paris, Wajdi Mouawad, to install "a telephone booth where people could speak to their departed".

"It is already used in Japan, after the tsunami people felt very guilty for not having saved their loved ones, for having let go of their baby's hand," says Kaori Ito, who has a little boy of her own.

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At La Colline, nearly 200 people took part in the experience, giving rise to the project "The word channel" (which takes place every Saturday at the theatre where Kaori guides participants who testify anonymously). "It's to heal the soul," she said.

With their agreement, she recovered a hundred recordings to use them in her other creation, Chers, which will begin on November 4 at the Centquatre, in Paris, where she is an associate artist.

They are mingled with letters written by the five dancers of the play to their missing relatives and are read by an actress who acts as a "shaman, a ferryman of souls".

“On stage, the dancers are like souls that fly very quickly,” she says.

The show is also inspired by the dramaturgy of the Noh theatre where there is always a part written for ghosts and the aim is to appease the soul.

"There has been a lot of pain, a lot of suffering this year, the theatre had to be there to fluidise negative energy," explains the choreographer.

Other shows by Kaori Ito appeal more to the flesh than to spirituality. At La Scala Paris, she resumes Embrase-moi (2017), where she and her companion, the circus artist Théo Touvet, share their past sexual experiences before dancing naked and presenting an astonishing number of Cyr wheels.

"I often combine dialogue and dance, but the body expresses itself better than words", she says.

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AFP / Samedi 24 octobre 2020

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Publiésur:LaCroix.com;France24.com...

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Un fauteuil pour l’orchestre.com / Saturday, 31st of October 2020

The Silk Drum, a modern Noh, staged and choreographed by Kaori Ito and Yoshi Oïda, Théâtre de la Ville - Paris / Espace Cardin *

ƒƒƒ article by Denis Sanglard

There are suspended and fragile moments, of infinite and miraculous grace, that external events make brutally acute and painful. It was a premiere night, but it was also a final night. A final raising of the curtain before a new lockdown that will last a month or probably two. And a presidential speech where, in the face of the devastation that loomed, there was no mention of culture ...

An old man falls in love with a dancer who rehearses on the stage which he is sweeping away the madness of a traditional Noh. The young girl hands him a silk drum and promises him that she will be his if he can make it sound. But the surface of the drum is silk, the task is impossible. The humiliated old man chooses to die. His blood covered ghost comes to haunt the young girl. Originally from a Noh adapted by Yukio Mishima, Jean-Claude Carrière was inspired by this latest version to make his blueprint. On stage, there is the trio Yoshi Oïda, Kaori Ito and the musician Makoto Yabuki.

Yoshi Oïda and Kaori Ito, an obvious meeting. This Noh is a pretext inspired by Japanese art, at the crossroads of East and West, like its two expatriate performers who draw their originality and inspiration from Japan. Noh, yes for art that combines theatre and dance in the same movement. And this movement into stillness and breath. Stillness and breath which participate in the dance. A story of an inhabited body. The fragility of Yoshi Oïda, the companion of Peter Brook, who dances for the first time, at 87 years of age. A worn-out old man, in love and humiliated or bloodied and vengeful, he is a phenomenal presence sometimes light and assured, an invisible actor in the omnipotence and mastery of his art, of his long experience, which disappears before our eyes and gives way with humility to the place of his character. Yoshi Oïda does not act a part, he becomes that part. According to Claudel’s definition of Noh, "Noh is someone who arrives". Consequently, with him, all that is theatricality and tragedy is to come. That is what he carries with him when he walks on stage with brush and bucket in hand, Yoshi Oïda. That is what is fascinating. Kaori Ito is that fiery, stubborn flame clad in red, unbridled grace and keen force, closely woven together. A protean dance that moves bravely into an unknown but still conquered territory. Like so many questions about her art and her identity. Between these two, these two exceptional artists, a story of transmission, of tenuous filiation. Where time nor age matter. A complicity, an intimacy, which moves to tears and which bursts to the rhythm of the percussion of Makoto Yabuki, reflections, echoes of the troubled feelings which cross these bodies which express so much when words fail, the verb lies, the silence howls, the breath betrays.

* due to lockdown, the performance will be streamed live on Friday 30 October at 7 p.m. and on 31 Saturday at 3 p.m. on the website of the Théâtre de la Ville - Paris and live on Facebook, without an audience in the room.

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Un fauteuil pour l’orchestre.com / Samedi 31 octobre 2020

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Resmusica.com / Tuesday, 3rd of November 2020

The Silk Drum, a modern Noh: the old man and the dancer The last night before lock-down at the Théâtre de la Ville - Espace Cardin, where Kaori Ito and Yoshi Oïda performed The Silk Drum, a contemporary version of a modern Noh by Mishima adapted by Jean-Claude Carrière. Created at the Maison de la Culture in Amiens in March and resumed during the Art Week in Avignon at the end of October, it is a moving encounter between an old man and a dancer that says a lot about today's relationships between generations.

Mythical performer Peter Brook, notably in Mahabharata and The Tempest, Yoshi Oïda, 87 years old, dances for the first time in this adaptation of a legendary story from Noh theatre, where Jean-Claude Carrière was inspired by Yukio Mishima’s adaptation of The Silk Drum. The show tells the story of an old man, a handyman in a theatre, who admires the young dancer he sees rehearsing on stage. Cruel, the young woman hands her admirer a silk drum, asking him to accompany her. But the instrument produces no sound.

Beyond a Noh, poetic and allegorical, this story is first of all about encounters between generations and takes on a particular resonance with today’s situation. Old people who still wish to have the right to desire and young people who sometimes lack benevolence and a spirit of solidarity, this is also what this poignant play tells us. Despite its universal appeal, it also seems rooted in Japanese society, where modest elderly people are often obliged to take low paid jobs to make up for their meagre pensions.

Comedian Yoshi Oïda is extraordinary when he dances, slowly. Each gesture, each movement executed in slow motion makes it possible to imagine his movement in a kimono if he was wearing one. Instead of this traditional garment, he wears the beige work garment of the stage technician who turns on the lights and turns off the ghost lamp and sweeps the stage that smells of dust. He speaks French with hesitation, which makes his diction even more fragile. His is a touching and sensitive character, unlike the dancer, sure of her art and her youth, on the stage.

Kaori Ito, a classically trained dancer, masters all the choreographic styles she uses in the show, from traditional Japanese rambyoshi dance to contemporary dances. This eclecticism is the weak point of the show because it muddies the waters a bit. Between the traditional Japanese show rehearsed by the character of the dancer and the contemporary improvisations of the choreographer, we do not have the impression of a common stylistic thread, and the choreographic writing sometimes lacks creativity or rigour.

This weakness matters little, as we are carried away by the authenticity of the old actor who takes the stage with vigour, sporting a serene smile. Facing him, the young dancer gradually abandons her certainties to let herself be moved by the old man and her emotion arises, to the distant sound of a radio cassette. Throughout the show, this delicate encounter is highlighted by the instruments of Makoto Yabuki, traditional instruments such as the bamboo flutes of the Noh theatre, but also the South American flute, Japanese drums or the bamboo xylophone.

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Resmusica.com / Mardi 3 novembre 2020

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