Lady Aoi (Aoi no Ue / 葵上)

Story of a woman's painful vengeance over lost love



Aobanomori Hall is a concert hall with a demountable Noh stage.
Can't believe this Noh stage was assembled just for this one day!

Program: Aoba Noh #35
Date: February 21, 2016
Venue: Aobanomori Park Art and Culture Hall (Chiba, Japan)

Story

Here is a good synopsis in the-noh.com

My Comments

I had expected Lady Rokujo to be a demonic crazy woman, full of rage and jealousy.  But she was surprisingly classy, complicated, and heartbreakingly sad.  Lady Rokujo's repressed devotion for Genji and jealousy towards Lady Aoi had turned her spirit into a raging phantom, but this was unintentional, and she was embarrassed of her own transformation.  There were signs of ambivalence and confusion in her attack towards Aoi.  In the end, Rokujo is defeated by the power of priest's prayers, and her raging spirit withdraws back to sanity.  But I think her "salvation" amplifies her tragedy because she has to live the rest of her life dealing with this shameful fiasco that she caused (not to mention loss of Genji's affection).

Shite (lead actor)'s portrayal of Lady Rokujo' spirit was deeply moving and drew a great deal of empathy from me.  I think any woman (or man) could relate to the helpless feeling of being overcome with uncontrollable emotions, while still holding on to that last thread of reason, self-respect, and dignity.  From the moment Shite entered the stage, his portrayal of Rokujo was both elegant and heart-wrenching.  I had expected a crazy woman's battle for vengeance, but the play was actually about her painful internal battle and acceptance of loss of love.  Very profound and heartbreaking.

Love this beautiful flyer

I particularly enjoyed the scene in which the priestess used a harp-like instrument called Azusa no Yumi to summon the phantom.  Of course, this is Noh, so there is no harp in sight; you've gotta feel it.  One of the drummers portrayed the sound of the harp, using his voice and his drum.  His voice was deeply hypnotic and actually sounded like some kind of harp.  The scene then leads to the entrance of Rokujo's spirit, who is summoned by the sound.  This entire sequence was beautiful and haunting.

I also found it interesting that Lady Aoi was portrayed not by an actor but by a piece of cloth (a kimono) placed on the stage.

[Edited on March 12th] Also, I found it peculiar that Lady Rokujo supposedly enters the stage in a horse carriage, even though there is no horse carriage.  Audience has to "see" the imaginary horse carriage by the way she carries herself as she walks across the stage.  I am learning that Noh audience needs to do quite a bit of imagining, because the actors rarely use large props.  When Rokujo entered the scene, I could kind of see the carriage imagery, by the way she covered herself with a cloth (hard to explain), but I would never have noticed it had I not read about it in the synopsis beforehand.