Were concerts cancelled? / Rakugo: Japanese humor

On the day “Ondoy” struck, I went to Ayala Museum for the Villanueva-Regala duo recital, having told the organizer that I would attend the early evening program. When I arrived at Ayala Museum, I was told to my disappointment that the recital had been cancelled.

There was the MMCO concert under Chino Toledo featuring outstanding pianist Cristine Coyiuto in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasie and Miriam College president as narrator in “Lincoln Portrait”. Did the event go through?

Could Filfest founder-president Vicki Zubiri have been way out there in Alabang welcoming guests for the concert set also for Sept. 26?

Finally, there was the concert at Philamlife Theater which I had failed to include in my column. The invitation arrived late, Jeffrey Solares, Manila Symphony Orchestra Associate Conductor, having sent it to the STAR offices and not to my Makati residence. The program was to have featured the MSO under Arturo Molina in Borodin’s Polovetsian Dances and Korsakov’s Scheherazade, and piano soloist Mary Anne Espina in Chopin’s Concerto No. 1 in E Minor.

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As I entered a side room of the Ayala Museum to watch Rakugo, the Japanese sit-down comedy in English, I saw two little Japanese girls in kimonos seated on the floor fronting the elevated stage. They later proved to be an invitation to latecomers to join them because by curtain time, the latecomers would have had to stand.

An attractive, kimono-garbed Japanese woman introduced Rakugo master Katsura Kaishi in a simple, amusing and charming manner that tickled the risibilities early on.

The 400-year old Japanese sit-down comic story-telling proves the Japanese love for tradition: the Kabuki and the Noh are likewise ancient theater forms. Rakugo masters, who abound in Japan, have their counterparts in Hollywood stars who enjoy fame and fortune.

The Rakugo performer sits on a small cushion and acts out stories consisting of conversations among several characters depicted through gestures, movements, facial expressions and different vocal inflections. Characters may range from a thief, a samurai, a geisha, a merchant to even an animal — a monkey, a lion, a tiger, a bird.

The humor is simple, direct, indeed, elementary. There are no subtleties or refined nuances. Anyone who understands English will understand the jokes and laugh. Let me illustrate. In one story, Katsura, characterizing a monkey in a motor accident, relates that the woman passenger is asleep, the man is drinking heavily. And the monkey? By his gesture, Katsura reveals the monkey driving the car!

Katsura elicited guffaws when he confided to the audience that he spoke English only onstage; therefore, after the show no one should talk to him.

Through highly descriptive miming and vocal sounds, Katsura ate noodles with his chopsticks, inviting each viewer to pretend to hold a bowl in one hand and a pair of chopsticks with the other. Many accepted the invitation but no one could imitate Katsura’s slurping and grunting that went with his eating.

Interrupting the show, a film clip informed the audience that an apprentice learns from his Rakugo master by serving him slavishly for about three years. The audience was sent rolling in the aisles when the film clip showed the master telling his protégé, “Repeat after me”, following this with a flood of words which the protégé faithfully repeats. In the next breath, the master says, “Don’t repeat after me” with the protégé repeating this instruction and all the other sentences that follow, the while exasperating the master.

Rides on a rickshaw or a car provided hilarious highlights as Katsura’s bodily movements indicated how hazardous the rides were. In one trip, with Katsura leaping and swaying from side to side — talking all the while! — the passengers — each portrayed by Katsura — were experiencing diverse ordeals. Finally, one of them asks: “Where are we?” Katsura, the driver, quickly replies: “In heaven!”

The Rakugo proved to be a unique, exhilarating show that gave a revealing insight into the Japanese psyche. Ben Suzuki, director of the Japanese Foundation, was thoroughly delighted at the warm response of the international audience.