Power and Folly: Three Plays in One
Kyōgen, or traditional Japanese comedy, is fast paced, with quick-wit and short scenes that get straight to the fun! Join us for Power and Folly, three individual tales that each teach a lesson-you can laugh at!
Two Great Lords (Futari Daimyō), a play from the traditional repertory, brings the spirit of kyōgen to life as a passerby is forced into service by two supposed great lords out traveling. In this delightful “weak overcoming the strong” parable, the passerby turns the tables, depriving the lords of their belongings, and yet somehow leaving them, and the audience, in laughter.
Two Mountain Priests (Futari Yamabushi), a new kyōgen play written by kyōgen actor Dōji Shigeyama, makes it’s English language debut. The mountain priest (yamabushi) is a familiar character in kyōgen. Believed to have spiritual powers that accrue from enduring austerities in the mountains, kyōgen plays bring the mountain priest down to size. Here, for the first time, two mountain priests meet at a teahouse and face off in a “prayer down,” testing their powers against each other. The outcome will surprise you.
Derailed, a new Hawaiʻi kyōgen by Matthew Kelty, blends kyōgen form and spirit with 21st-century socio-political reality in Hawaiʻi. Harkening back to the early satirical roots of kyōgen, in this “tale of the rail,” akamai local construction workers outwit a clueless consultant and his ill-advised ideas about the planned rail line, demonstrating the power of Hawaiian beliefs and the importance of protecting the ʻāina.
Two Great Lords (Futari Daimyō), a play from the traditional repertory, brings the spirit of kyōgen to life as a passerby is forced into service by two supposed great lords out traveling. In this delightful “weak overcoming the strong” parable, the passerby turns the tables, depriving the lords of their belongings, and yet somehow leaving them, and the audience, in laughter.
Two Mountain Priests (Futari Yamabushi), a new kyōgen play written by kyōgen actor Dōji Shigeyama, makes it’s English language debut. The mountain priest (yamabushi) is a familiar character in kyōgen. Believed to have spiritual powers that accrue from enduring austerities in the mountains, kyōgen plays bring the mountain priest down to size. Here, for the first time, two mountain priests meet at a teahouse and face off in a “prayer down,” testing their powers against each other. The outcome will surprise you.
Derailed, a new Hawaiʻi kyōgen by Matthew Kelty, blends kyōgen form and spirit with 21st-century socio-political reality in Hawaiʻi. Harkening back to the early satirical roots of kyōgen, in this “tale of the rail,” akamai local construction workers outwit a clueless consultant and his ill-advised ideas about the planned rail line, demonstrating the power of Hawaiian beliefs and the importance of protecting the ʻāina.
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