Theatre: The Players from Japan

Selections from Japanese drama currently played in Manhattan by native mimes will inevitably be compared with the Chinese drama simultaneously presented in Manhattan by the greatest of Chinese actors, Mei Lan-Fang (TIME, Feb 17)-, Any comparison must take into account the fact that Mei Lan-Fang acts the century-old, traditional drama of China, as quaint and stylized as a sketch on a box of tea, whereas the Japanese company gives examples of the Ken-Geki or sword-drama, a 10-year-old popular departure from the formal, aristocratic Kabuki and No dramas of ancient Japan.

The...

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