Bunraku: Japanese Puppet Theatre
| Hours: | 7:30pm |
| In/Outdoor: | Indoor |
| Cost: | $$$ see below |
| Category: | Theater & Shows |
About Bunraku
One of Japan’s most celebrated traditional art forms, Bunraku traces its origins to the 18th century and developed alongside Kabuki in the vigorous urban culture of early-modern Japan. It features large puppets that are three-quarters life size, each manipulated by three onstage puppeteers and each moving in extraordinarily lifelike actions.
The Bunraku puppets are accompanied by an onstage narrator who recites all the dialogue and takes on the personality of each character in the drama; seated next to the narrator at stage left are musicians performing on the banjo-like three-stringed shamisen. The three elements of puppets, narration, and music are flawlessly integrated in a multi-dimensioned performance that has evoked wonder and deep emotion in audiences all over the world.
Performances will be in Japanese with English supertitles. The program will present two celebrated classic Japanese plays: the dramatic “tower-climbing” scene from the play “Date Musume Koi no Higanoko (Oschichi’s Burning Love)” and the moving domestic drama “Tsubosaka Kannon Reigenki (Miracle at the Tsubosaku Kannon Temple),” a simple story of a blind man, his devoted wife and their salvation through the intercession of Kannon, the goddess of mercy and compassion.
Between the two plays will be a brief interlude during which the audience will be introduced to the intricate workings of Bunraku puppets and the narrators and musicians will also demonstrate the essential features of their separate arts.
Ticket Information
Tickets are available at the Cutler Majestic Theatre box office at 219 Tremont Street, in Boston’s theater district, and by phone and online at Telecharge, 800-233-3123 or www.telecharge.com. Ticket prices are $65, $55, $35 and a special student price of $20. Opening-night sponsor seats are also available through the Japan Society of Boston, 617-451-0726.
The performances will be by a troupe of 32 top artists from the internationally acclaimed National Bunraku Theater of Japan based in Osaka, Japan. This tour, which will also travel to Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, is the first major presentation of Bunraku in the US since 1992, and the first appearance of Bunraku in Boston since 1984.
The tour is supported in part by the Cultural Agency of Japan (Bunka-cho), the Japan Foundation, the US-Japan Foundation, Toyota Motors North America, and a group of major Osaka-based corporations. The Boston performances are made possible by the Freeman Foundation.
| COST | ↑ top |
$65, $55, $35 and a special student price of $20.
| WEBSITE | ↑ top |
| LOCATION | ↑ top |
219 Tremont Street, Boston, MA map
Phone: (800) 233-3123
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