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<\/a><\/p>\nThe Heisei Nakamura-za company, which made its North American debut in a critically acclaimed and sold-out run during Lincoln Center Festival 2004, was founded by the illustrious Kanzaburo XVIII, the late patriarch of the Nakamura family\u2014a veritable Kabuki dynasty in Japan with an unbroken line of actors and innovators reaching back to the 17th century. Kanzaburo\u2019s legacy of encapsulating Kabuki\u2019s centuries-old heritage with humor and contemporary references continues to live today in a company bursting with energy and joyously led by his two sons who are both accomplished and versatile young stage, film, and television actors: Nakamura Kankuro VI and Nakamura Shichinosuke II.<\/p>\n
For its Lincoln Center Festival engagement, the company has revived a rarely performed 19th-century ghost story, Kaidan Chibusa no Enoki (The Ghost Tale of the Wet Nurse Tree), about the murder of an artist by a handsome samurai who desires the artist\u2019s wife. Nakamura Shido II, who joins the company to perform at the Festival for the first time, plays the villainous samurai; the beautiful wife is played by Shichinosuke II. In a veritable acting tour de force, Kankuro VI plays three devilishly difficult roles\u2014including the artist, one of the key central figures\u2014with lightning-fast transformations, changing from one to another, sometimes within the same scene. Running the emotional gamut from drama to uproarious slapstick comedy, and culminating in a thrilling fight-to-the-death beneath a waterfall, this is Kabuki theater at its most engaging.<\/p>\n
Open a door on Japanese culture and the art of Kabuki by visiting the Japanese Artisan Village located on Lincoln Center\u2019s Josie Robertson Plaza just outside David H. Koch Theater. Each booth specializes in traditional handicrafts ranging from wood-fired pottery and textiles to delicately crafted dolls and kanzashi (hair ornaments). Daily schedule will be listed at a later date.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho knew that Kabuki could be a guilty pleasure?\u201d
\n\u2014New York Times<\/p>\n