Bunraku Returns to Boston After 20 Years

The Japan Society of Boston announced today that Bunrako, the classic traditional puppet theatre of Japan will return to Boston October 2-3 as part of a national tour of the United States.   

"We are delighted to be able to bring Bunraku back to Boston after so many years," commented Peter Grilli, President of the Japan Society of Boston. "This is a national tour that is long overdue and eagerly awaited.  Bunraku demonstrates an extraordinary choreography among  
The three puppeteers working each puppet, and the performance as a whole reveals an integration of words, movement and music in a form of theater unlike anything else in the world."

The Society will present two performances of Bunraku at the Cutler Majestic Theatre on Tuesday, October 2 and Wednesday, October 3, and will also offer an educational workshop about Bunraku for Boston schoolchildren on the afternoon of October 3.

The performances will be by a troupe of 32 top artists from the National Bunraku Theater of Japan based in Osaka,Japan.  This tour, which will also travel to Chicago,San  Francisco and Los Angeles, is the first major presentation of Bunraku  in the US since 1992, and the first appearance of Bunraku in Boston  since 1984..

One of Japan's most celebrated traditional art forms, Bunraku traces its origins to the 18th century and developed alongside Kabuki in the vigorous urban culture of early-modern Japan.  It features large puppets that are three-quarters life size, each manipulated by three onstage puppeteers and each moving in extraordinarily lifelike actions. The Bunraku puppets are accompanied by an onstage narrator who recites all the dialogue and takes on the personality of each character in the drama; seated next to the narrator at stage left are musicians performing on the banjo-like three-stringed shamisen.  The three elements of puppets, narration, and music are integrated in a multi-dimensioned performance.
Performances will be at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, October 2, and Wednesday, October 3, and will be in Japanese with English supertitles. 

The program will present two classic Japanese plays: the dramatic "tower-climbing" scene from the play "Date Musume Koi no Higanoko (Oschichi's Burning Love)" and the domestic drama  "Tsubosaka Kannon Reigenki (Miracle at the Tsubosaku Kannon Temple),"  a simple story of a blind man, his devoted wife and their salvation through the intercession of Kannon, the goddess of mercy and compassion.  Between the two plays will be a brief interlude during which the audience will be introduced to the intricate workings of Bunraku puppets and the narrators and musicians will also demonstrate the essential features of their separate arts.

Ticket prices are $65, $55, $35 and a special student price of $20

Tickets are available at the Cutler Majestic Theatre box office at 219 Tremont Street, in Boston's theater district, and by phone and online at Telecharge, 800-233-3123 or www.telecharge.com.

To post a comment, you must register and login.