The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

THE CHORUS AND SCENERY. 235
unless they have powerful voices. The samiseu-pLiyers generally sing,
and in the theatres the musicians form a part of the chorus. A good deal
of tlie play is explained by the chorus ; and if there are any obscure points,
the audience is told what the}' are. I remember seeing the same thing al-
most exactly, or, at
any rate, the same
thing in principle,
in the performance =;iji
of "Henry V." at a
«;^~
theatre in New York 5^?!^^
several years ago, so ^^B
that this idea of hav- ^^^J
ing the play explain-
Sis
ed by the chorus "VS
cannot be claimed
as a Japanese inven-
tion.
"In the theatre
I'LAYJNG THE SAMISEN.
the singing goes on sometimes while the actors are on the stage, and we
got tired of it in a little while. I don't suppose the Japanese get so tired
of it, or they would stop having it. Some of them admit that it would
be better to have the orchestra in front of the stage, as we do; but others
say that so long as the chorus must do so much towards explaining the
play, tliey had better remain where they are. The Japanese seem to like
their theatre as it is, and therefore they will not be apt to change in a
hurry.
" Just after the curtain was pulled away, they opened a door in the
middle of the garden, and the actors who were to be in the play came in.
They sat down on the stage and began a song, which they kept up for ten
or fifteen minutes, each of them singing a piart that was evidently prepared
for himself alone. The music in the little boxes joined them, and it made
me think of the negro minstrels in a concert hall at home, where they all
come on together. After they finished this part of the performance, there
was a pantomime by a woman, or rather by a man disguised as a woman,
as all the acting is done by men. They get themselves up perfectly, as
they have very little beards, and they can imitate the voice and move-
ments of a woman, so that nobody can tell the difference. I couldn't
tell what the pantomime was all about, and it was so long that I got tired
of it before they were through, and wondered when they would come on
with something else.