‘Noh’ is classical Japanese theatre which combines dance, drama, music, poetic text, exquisite costumes and masks into a highly aesthetic form of art that has been performed continuously for 650 years.

This performance demonstration talk is designed to introduce audiences to the key elements of noh and to have a close up and interactive experience of how a new noh is developed from ‘page to stage’. The focus of the new noh, Between the Stones, is ‘from tragic loss to peace’. It explores how the burden of grief turns into an understanding and celebration of life, death, beauty and love; and the transformative power of gardens to nurture and heal the soul… It also uniquely brings together three Japanese cultural forms – noh, karesansui gardens and furin (wind chimes).The professional noh actor, Kinue Oshima, the composer, Richard Emmert,and the author of this new two-act English language noh drama, Jannette Cheong, will share key aspects of how this new noh will be transformed from the poetic text to the stage production using traditional noh techniques.This is the third noh performing arts collaboration between Richard Emmert and Jannette Cheong and the second with the Oshima family following the acclaimed success of Pagoda (2009 European Tour, 2011 Asia Tour).

Come and join this unique team to have a deeper understanding of the 650 year-old theatre of noh, and learn about the second important phase of this rare, new collaborative noh project.