through the world of spices and more...: 2012

KOODIYATTAM- ART FORM OF INDIA

Koodiyattam is recognized by the UNESCO as one of the masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity. The Koodiyattam tradition of enacting classical Sanskrit dramas, is closely tied to Kerala's Hindu temples. It is a comprehensive theatre form that has existed since before the tenth century AD and is India's oldest theatre to have been continuously performed. Koodiyattam has the same delight in nuance and hidden shades of meaning in metaphors and delicate implications which is the hallmark of so much of Sanskrit literature.

There is clear evidence of efforts to reform Koodiyattam by one king, Kulashekhara Varman by the 9th to the 10th century A.D. As such reforms give rise to the supposition of a long-standing tradition, literary sources assume that Koodiyattam has a continuous history of at least 1000 years. This makes Koodiyattam the oldest surviving form of Sanskrit theatre.

art form and social background

Koodiyattom is a peculiar combination of the Sanskrit concept of theatre, operating within strict religious and ritualistic boundaries and an independent interpretation of the text.
Here we find also the meeting of the two world views: the patriarchal and matrilineal. The Chakyars are the male actors and chief custodians of the art, while sharing the stage with the Nangyars, women of matrilineal households and their men folk, the Nambiar drummers. While the Chakyars are said to be of Aryan origin and therefore probably carriers of Sanskrit learning, the Nangyars are local and their inclusion represents thus a harmonious fusion between two distinct cultures.
While Koodiyattam's Vedic/Sanskrit origins have been preserved and regarded as a sacrilege, the actor's independent interpretation of the text has simultaneously adapted to regional tastes until Koodiyattam has been assimilated as a supremely art of Kerala. The vigor of the folk art roots of Koodiyattam and Koothu may explains to a large extent that this art form is still alive.

Shakespearean Theatre

“Shakespeare was not of an age, but for all time!”

These were the words spoken by Shakespeare’s contemporary and rival, Ben Johnson. He had anticipated Shakespeare’s dazzling future when he declared so. This just proves once again that William Shakespeare was the most popular and influential dramatist the world had ever seen. In fact, his plays have the reputation of being among the greatest in the English language and in Western literature. Over the years, numerous attempts have been made to revive the long lost glory of Shakespearean theatre. Some of these attempts have proven successful as well.

Shakespearean plays have been translated into every major living language, in addition to being continually performed all around the world. Many of them appeared in print as a series of quartos, but approximately half of them remained unpublished until 1623, when the posthumous First Folio was published. Traditionally, Shakespeare’s 38 plays are divided into the genres of tragedy, history, and comedy. This traditional categorization follows the categories used in the First Folio.

A Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeare's other plays. Patterns in the comedies include movement to a "green world", both internal and external conflicts, and a tension between Apollonian and Dionysian values. Shakespearean comedies tend to also include a greater emphasis on situations than characters. They focus on topics like the hardships faced by young lovers, separation, deception and dispute among characters. He uses all styles of comedy (slapstick, puns, dry humour, earthy humour, witty banter, practical jokes) in his intertwining plots. Several of Shakespeare's comedies, such as Measure for Measure and All's Well That Ends Well, have an unusual tone with a difficult mix of humour and tragedy. By the end of Shakespeare's life, he had written seventeen comedies.

Shakespeare wrote tragedies from the beginning of his career. One of his earliest plays was the Roman tragedy Titus Andronicus, which he followed a few years later with Romeo and Juliet. However, his most admired tragedies were written in a seven-year period between 1601 and 1608. These include his four major tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, along with Antony & Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Cymbeline, Julius Caesar, Troilus and Cressida. It is also well noted that Shakespeare’s tragic protagonists are capable of both good and evil deeds.

The histories were those plays based on the lives of English kings. Therefore they can be more accurately called the "English history plays". Macbeth, set in the mid-11th century during the reigns of Duncan I of Scotland and Edward the Confessor, was classed as a tragedy, not a history, as were the plays that depict older historical figures such as Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and the legendary King Lear. These latter plays, however, are often included in the studies of Shakespeare's treatment of history.

However, modern criticism points out that some of his plays elude easy categorization or purposely break generic conventions. Hence, numerous reforms are emerging in this context.For example, contemporary critics have introduced the term romances for what scholars had believed to be his later comedies.

When Shakespeare first arrived in London in the late 1580s or early 1590s, dramatists writing for London's new commercial playhouses were combining two different strands of dramatic tradition. The first and the most common form of English theatre were the Tudor morality plays. These plays showcased the virtues of a “Godly life” by prompting the protagonist to choose such a life over Evil. The characters and plot situations are largely symbolic rather than realistic. The other strand of dramatic tradition was classical aesthetic theory. This theory was derived ultimately from Aristotle. These plays adhered to classical ideas of unity and decorum, but they were also more static, valuing lengthy speeches over physical action.

Under such circumstances Shakespearean theatre was seen as a breath of fresh air by the masses. It succeeded in amazing the audience with its originality as well as its spontaneity. As a matter of fact, it continues to do so even today.

NOH – A LIVING ART FORM

Noh is one of the major forms of classical musical drama in japan. It has been performed since the 14th century. Zeami,who lived in the 14^th centuary, is the father of noh theatre, having written a vast quantity of plays, many of which are still regularly performed. One of the most striking aspects of the Noh is that the shite, the main actor, may wear a mask, as may his companions, It is a truely timeless artform, which speaks to modern audiences as it did to the noblemen and women of the Muromachi period.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the powerful ruler of all Japan had experienced an early form of Noh performed by Zeami. It is due to Yoshimitsu's patronage and interest in early Noh that this dramatic form was able to develop into the highly refined, serene theater which we can see today. Noh exists today in a form almost unchanged since Zeami's day.

The early origins of Noh theater were mostly folk-type forms of rustic entertainment; Sarugaku, which was connected to Shinto rituals, Dengaku, a kind of acrobatics with juggling, which later developed into a type of song-and-dance, Chinese-derived dances, and recited and chanted ballads which formed part of the oral tradition of the people.

By the middle of the fourteenth century, these various sources seem to have been combined into a form of theater recognizable to modern audiences as Noh, although just what those early plays were like is hard to say. There are plays believed by scholars to be by Kanami, but they seem to have been heavily revised by his son Zeami, and no surviving play can be securely dated to before their era.

Kokata, or boy actors, never wear masks, nor do waki, the secondary characters who appear first on stage to set the scene, and meet the main actor. Masks are carved from wood, often cedar, which is then gessoed and painted, and include some of the most moving works of sculptural art in Japan, and, since there are so many different types, it takes a certain familiarity with them to recognize specific types.

The play will be performed on a stage open on three sides, and with a painted backboard representing a pine tree behind. A sort of walkway, called the hashigakari leads onto the stage right position from an entrance doorway at right angles to the backboard. Along the hashigakari are three small pine trees, and these define areas where the actor may pause to deliver lines, before arriving on the main roofed stage, which is about six metres square.

Ranged along in front of the backboard is a group of musicians whose instruments include a flute, a shoulder drum, a hip drum and sometimes a stick drum. The musicians are responsible for the otherworldly, strange music which accompanies dance and recitation alike. Again at right angles to the backboard, at extreme stage left, there is the chorus of eight to twelve chanters arranged in two rows and it is their job to take over the narration of the story, or the lines of the main character if he is engaged in a dance.

These elements all contribute to a cohesive whole which creates a richly textured background against which the play is enacted, and since no scenery, few props and only a small cast appears, the imagination of the audience is left to roam freely.

In general, Japanese Noh plays are not very dramatic, although they are beautiful, since the text is full of poetical allusions and the dances, though slow, are extremely elegant. It is this very beauty which makes Noh a living art form still, over six hundred years after it developed, and which has caused all subsequent Japanese theatrical forms to draw on aspects of Noh.The Noh theater still speaks to audiences today, as evinced by the crowds which still rush to buy tickets for performances at the National Noh Theater, and at the five theaters belonging to the five troupes of Noh.

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