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Engei Hall
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Address: 4-1 Hayabusa-cho, Chiyoda-ku
| About Theatre |
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The Engei Hall isn't large, there are just 300 seating places
there. Such a small area allows the actors to reach better mutual
understanding with the audience. In the Engei Hall, the rakugo
performances often take place. Rakugo is very popular among
Japanese public, and it gains popularity among the foreign audience.
Rakugo can be best described as Japanese sit-down comedy or
comic story telling. Professional narrator calling rakugo-ka
performs the stories. He sits on his knees while performing.
He wears traditional Japanese clothes (kimono). Usually the
performer has a fan and a towel. They help him to express and
act out the story. For example, he can use a fan as a cigarette,
a pen or a chopstick. The towel can serve as a book, a map or
a bill. The stage for the rakugo performances is very simple
and has no scenery.
A rakugo story can be defined as a short humorous tale ending
with a punch line. Today the basic rakugo repertoire consists
of enlarged and refined versions of the old stories. There are
many rakugo stories: some of them are really old ones, some
of them were created recently, and sometimes the distinction
between them is very thin.
The rakugo stories are performed by one actor. But usually in
the stories, there are several characters. The narrator has
to play each character by changing voice, facial expression
and speech. The characters have strong recognizable stereotyped
personalities and features. Each of them emphasizes one aspect
of the human individuality.
Rakugo is an art of imagination. The audience is free to imagine
any character and any background. The narrator tells the story,
and the public tries to imagine it in details.
Rakugo started to develop in the end of the 17th century. It
appeared as short stories, which were told among common people.
Then some people who were talented enough to perform funny stories
and attract the attention of the audience started to rent large
rooms and give concerts. Those concerts were very popular among
the public, and the large rented rooms called yose became centers
of Japanese social life. In the end of the 18th century the
style of the rakugo stories presentation was formed, and since
then it hasn't been changed. Historically the rakugo performers
were men. Even now there are just a few female performers, who
could suitably compete in rakugo art with men.
All the rakugo stories are oral. When the art of rakugo was
developing, many people were not able to read. That's why there
were no written rakugo stories. Nowadays the tradition is kept,
and the performers and their students never write the rakugo
jokes down. They have to memorize them and reproduce from memory.
Performers introduce their own originality telling the story,
and their main goal is to make the people laugh at the tale
they have heard before. That's why the profession of the rakugo
performer demands certain skills, talent and experience.
The art of rakugo is appreciated among the audience, as it combines
joke and play and reflects some features of the society. Foreign
public attends the rakugo performances too, as they enjoy mastery
and skills of the performers. Even if one doesn't know Japanese,
he still could enjoy the show.
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