ACTING IN JAPAN.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 250, 28 March 1888, Page 9

ACTING IN JAPAN.

A Shower of Bate, Goats, and Sashes From the Audience. The Japanese school of acting might) bo called the natural one, the whole progress of the play being carried on in the quiet, even tones of every day. There is little bombast or rant except in the classical interludes, when everything is as stilted and conventional as possible. Pathos is always deep and long-drawn, and the last tear is wrung from the eyes of the audience, which responds with handkerchiefs to the slightest appeal to the emotional side. Tragedy is very tragic, and murders more ! gory than we would quite enjoy. Death on the Japanese stage always results from sword cuts, and tho antics of the fencers, the wonderful endurance of the hacked victims and the streams of red paint that pour from all over them before they die are rather too much, The audience enjoys this, however, and they fchoufc, shriek and whoop with delight when a good gory combat goes on. To express greater approval they throw pieces of their clothing or any of their valued belongings on to the stage, just as excited young ladies at the opera hurl their bouquets at Patti and queens draw offdiamond rings and bracelets to hand to Nilsson. A foreigner who saw the rain of coats, sashes, &c, falling on the stage after a thrilling scene, tossed his hat over too. It wae an old one that he did not care for. He had a soft cap in his pocket, and he thought it rather a nice thing to be able to follow the fashion of the country. At the end of the play' the manager brought the hat to him and asked for the $10. The enthusiast then found that all the things tos3ed to the star were merely pledges to be afterward redeemed by money, tho actors having a regular schedule, so much for a coat, a kimono, a sash and a pipe, and corresponding sums for foreigners' hats and loose articles. Tho enthusiast sadly paid his $10 and took back his abused <hq,t, as the manager only bowed and continued to hold it out.in spite of his generous protests about his wishing the star to keep it as a small souvenir, &c.