SCENOGRAPHY AND COSTUME IN JAPANESE KABUKI THEATER: TRADITIONS AND MODERNITY

Abstract

Abstract. The article explores the history of traditional Japanese Kabuki theater, the stages of its formation and the basic principles of dramaturgy in retrospective and in modern times, the role and symbolic value of costumes, as well as the general features of theater performances. The modern trends of the theater were analyzed and issues of the space of its scene were investigated. Obvious conservatism of kabuki and its fundamental dissimilarity to the theater of the European model were noted. The process of evolution of the Kabuki theater was studied, which responding to the challenges of modernity, acquires new elements and features, together give rise to the fundamentally new phenomenon in the theatrical art. It has been determined that the logic of construction and development of the theater and stage space in Japanese traditional Kabuki theater derived from the need for specific interaction between the performer and the audience. With the formation of the theater, its audience expanded at the same time, in particular due to the privileged strata. The premises of theater and its stage also evolved. Eventually, the design features of Kabuki theater space became not only a prominent element in the interaction between the performers and spectators, but also an important factor that predominantly determined the characteristics of dramaturgy. In Japanese Kabuki theater, such methods as makeup, hair pieces and costumes are simultaneously those means of expression that are necessarily included in the process of staging a performance, and determine its content and storyline, as well as determine the nature of the performer’s acting. These means are kind of sign and symbolic system, which has to be read by the spectator in order to fully understand the nature of performance. The peculiarities of the costume allow us to read in advance nature of the character in performance, to guess his or her actions, etc. The peculiarity of Kabuki is that the play script is dictated by the performers themselves, but not by the scriptwriter. The director as an independent figure in Kabuki theater comes to the first plan only in the modern era, and it is mostly characteristic of innovative and experimental theaters. It is worth noting that given the challenges of modernity, Kabuki still acquires new elements and features, together generating a fundamentally new phenomenon in the art of theater, and in general, Kabuki remains a traditional theater.