SOTOBA KOMACHI
by Yukio Mishima

“A fool like you thinks every beautiful woman gets ugly as soon as she grows old…”

Japanese Nō drama is one of the world’s great medieval art forms. In the 1950s, Yukio Mishima — a controversial but immense figure of postwar literature — infused new life into the form by adapting 5 traditional Nō stories into contemporary plays. They preserve Nō’s magical and revelatory roots but are, at the same time, utterly modern and intelligible to today. This is one of them.

Mishima’s Sotoba Komachi is a strikingly beautiful ghost story about love and aging.

Komachi is 99 years old. Her clothes smell, her hair has lice and she is alone. But when a young poet meets her in a park we discover that, in her past life, she was quite the opposite. What follows is an enthralling and magical exploration of age and our perception of beauty…

★★★★
“Sotoba Komachi is a rare diversion that fits the bill in the current New Ghosts production cycle of ideas and experiments…Treat yourself, you won’t regret it.” – Stage Noise

“fantastic in skill and form, filling the space with an abundance of energy… Campese is to be commended for their work of bringing the lesser-known style of Noh plays to the Australian stage.” – Theatre Travels

“Direction by Jeremi Campese demonstrates an appreciation for the macabre beauty inherent in the Japanese piece” – Suzy Goes See

“It is poetic as it is beautiful. Be delighted on a night out embracing the classic Japanese Nō story – does true love conquer all? Will Komachi find her happiness in this life or the next? Be sure to get tickets to Komachi to find out!”
– Theatre Thoughts