The story of the blind princess

The show "The story of the blind princess" is based on an original script, signed by Silviu Purcărete, which starts from the kabuki play by Tsuruya Namboku IV. Kabuki is one of the most important styles of Japanese theater, characterized by visual sophistication and a complex codification.
Kabuki theater has its origins in the sensual and comic scenes performed by the priestess Okuni and her troupe of actresses. Okuni adapted the style of ritual performance practiced in temples, to scripts with secular subjects, mostly dull.
The success of the plays was mainly due to the erotic scenes, which often led to fights between the audience due to the actresses, who also practiced prostitution. Because of this, women were banned from acting in kabuki performances, being replaced by young men. Twenty years later, they were also kicked out when it was discovered that young actors were doing the same. As a result, all the roles in kabuki shows were played by mature men.
Inspired by this theatrical tradition, Silviu Purcărete proposes to make a European show, using the text, rules and space of kabuki, reinterpreted in a personal way.
The story of Princess Sakura (cherry blossom) has undergone, over time, several transformations, starting from the original version that dates back to 1817, to the most famous of the versions, from 1967, from the National Theater from Tokyo.
Tsuruya Namboku IV wrote over 100 plays in the last 25 years of his life, and one of the most important is the one that tells the story of Princess Sakura.
The author was famous for bringing back to the public's attention of well-known 17th-century kabuki plays and for innovation in the kabuki tradition.
Princess Sakura is the heroine of numerous kabuki and bunraku plays, but Namboku is the first to bring her to the fore.
The story begins when Seigen, the abbot of a temple, falls in love with his young disciple, Shiragiku. Condemned to a life of impossible love, the priest and his disciple decide to commit suicide. The young man dies, the priest survives. Seventeen years later, when Princess Sakura comes to the temple to become a monk, Seigen recognizes her as Shiragiku's female reincarnation and falls in love all over again. revenge. The show takes these themes and builds, with humor and self-irony, an effervescent commentary on the dialogue between European and Japanese culture.