Andrzej Wajda - Meeting with Tamasaburo Bando (216/222)
To listen to more of Andrzej Wajda’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFy6EEYt468zst0wxZgLIw2T Polish film director Andrzej Wajda (1926-2016), whose début films portrayed the horror of the German occupation of Poland, won awards at Cannes which established his reputation as storyteller and commentator on Polish history. He also served on the national Senate from 1989-91. [Listener: Jacek Petrycki] TRANSCRIPT: Several years went by and I travelled to Japan again to Kyoto with Krystyna, and as we were crossing the road, we noticed a beautiful woman painted onto a huge hoarding outside the theatre where it said, as our friends told us, that this was La Dame aux Camélias. Where was this beautiful woman from? No, no they said - the role is played by onnagata, an actor who plays women. This was how I came to see Tamasaburo Bando for the first time. We went to see him and I knew I had to meet this actor. His acting was fabulous. There were real women on stage with him but they weren't very impressive, lacking in form. He really did created the magnificent character of La Dame aux Camélias in the way he died, how he behaved and how he spoke! All of this was so enthralling that from that moment on, I suddenly realised that he's a man and could therefore simultaneously play Nastasia and Prince Myshkin. That would be a genuine mystery of a stage actor who transforms himself and plays both of these roles together. This mania gripped me and I wrote a letter to Tamasaburo who for a long time didn't give me any opportunity to hope. I easily guessed that he was afraid of performing - or maybe wasn't afraid but didn't see why he should be playing a man. Onnagata is an actor who from the age of five-seven years old begins to perform in Kabuki theatre and, if he's an onnagata, he plays little girls and grows with these roles to play grown women and then old women. He never plays a man but only ever female roles. Tamasaburo Bando was an exception here in that he didn't only perform in traditional female roles in Kabuki theatre but he also performed in European plays. He'd played Juliet in 'Romeo and Juliet', he'd played Lady Macbeth, he'd played the female lead in other European plays. Therefore, I could hope that if he'd played La Dame aux Camélias, he might also want to play Nastasia. He wanted to play Nastasia but he just didn't want to play Price Myshkin at the same time because he was wary of his audience which had only ever seen him as a woman, never as a man. He had started acting as a five-year-old and I had seen him as a five-year-old girl dancing the dance of a little girl. I understood that this was... This lasted a long time, three-four years before he wrote to me to say that he'd decided he was ready to perform in this play. I had written to him earlier to explain what this was all about, what kind of work this was. He was, of course, an educated man and so he not only knew who Dostoyevsky was but he also knew what sort of story this was, what my idea was about. Finally, a positive decision was made. From that moment, together with Krystyna who was a set and costume designer, we transferred all the props and even some furniture from our theatre. Krystyna designed new costumes because Nastasia had now joined the cast. She designed a woman's costume for Nastasia and a man's costume for Prince Myshkin, Rogozhin. Two actors, three characters. We began rehearsals. I have to say that it was beautiful, wonderful and a truly theatrical experience because I saw a miracle which I would never have been able to imagine. I saw how he was transformed from a man into a woman. With one gesture, he removed the earrings in his ears, turned around and suddenly, he was a man. A moment later, he threw on a shawl. Krystyna had done this very skilfully so that he could transform himself from a woman into a man with the aid of his costume. So he would throw on a shawl, turn around and become someone completely different. He spoke in a different voice, his movements were changed. It was totally fascinating to watch how this came about. Around him was a uniquely disciplined team of people who worked with him so that this work was a huge joy, followed by the unexpected performance which was highly applauded in Tokyo and then the following year we took it to Osaka and played another season. However, because neither Tamasaburo nor I were in favour of committing this to film, as I've already mentioned, we made the film 'Nastasia' in Warsaw, and the film exists to this day. But a film will always provide the opportunity to edit whereas here suddenly I had the essence of theatre, its soul, something that can't be created anywhere else, the astonishing transformation that you can suddenly see.
To listen to more of Andrzej Wajda’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFy6EEYt468zst0wxZgLIw2T Polish film director Andrzej Wajda (1926-2016), whose début films portrayed the horror of the German occupation of Poland, won awards at Cannes which established his reputation as storyteller and commentator on Polish history. He also served on the national Senate from 1989-91. [Listener: Jacek Petrycki] TRANSCRIPT: Several years went by and I travelled to Japan again to Kyoto with Krystyna, and as we were crossing the road, we noticed a beautiful woman painted onto a huge hoarding outside the theatre where it said, as our friends told us, that this was La Dame aux Camélias. Where was this beautiful woman from? No, no they said - the role is played by onnagata, an actor who plays women. This was how I came to see Tamasaburo Bando for the first time. We went to see him and I knew I had to meet this actor. His acting was fabulous. There were real women on stage with him but they weren't very impressive, lacking in form. He really did created the magnificent character of La Dame aux Camélias in the way he died, how he behaved and how he spoke! All of this was so enthralling that from that moment on, I suddenly realised that he's a man and could therefore simultaneously play Nastasia and Prince Myshkin. That would be a genuine mystery of a stage actor who transforms himself and plays both of these roles together. This mania gripped me and I wrote a letter to Tamasaburo who for a long time didn't give me any opportunity to hope. I easily guessed that he was afraid of performing - or maybe wasn't afraid but didn't see why he should be playing a man. Onnagata is an actor who from the age of five-seven years old begins to perform in Kabuki theatre and, if he's an onnagata, he plays little girls and grows with these roles to play grown women and then old women. He never plays a man but only ever female roles. Tamasaburo Bando was an exception here in that he didn't only perform in traditional female roles in Kabuki theatre but he also performed in European plays. He'd played Juliet in 'Romeo and Juliet', he'd played Lady Macbeth, he'd played the female lead in other European plays. Therefore, I could hope that if he'd played La Dame aux Camélias, he might also want to play Nastasia. He wanted to play Nastasia but he just didn't want to play Price Myshkin at the same time because he was wary of his audience which had only ever seen him as a woman, never as a man. He had started acting as a five-year-old and I had seen him as a five-year-old girl dancing the dance of a little girl. I understood that this was... This lasted a long time, three-four years before he wrote to me to say that he'd decided he was ready to perform in this play. I had written to him earlier to explain what this was all about, what kind of work this was. He was, of course, an educated man and so he not only knew who Dostoyevsky was but he also knew what sort of story this was, what my idea was about. Finally, a positive decision was made. From that moment, together with Krystyna who was a set and costume designer, we transferred all the props and even some furniture from our theatre. Krystyna designed new costumes because Nastasia had now joined the cast. She designed a woman's costume for Nastasia and a man's costume for Prince Myshkin, Rogozhin. Two actors, three characters. We began rehearsals. I have to say that it was beautiful, wonderful and a truly theatrical experience because I saw a miracle which I would never have been able to imagine. I saw how he was transformed from a man into a woman. With one gesture, he removed the earrings in his ears, turned around and suddenly, he was a man. A moment later, he threw on a shawl. Krystyna had done this very skilfully so that he could transform himself from a woman into a man with the aid of his costume. So he would throw on a shawl, turn around and become someone completely different. He spoke in a different voice, his movements were changed. It was totally fascinating to watch how this came about. Around him was a uniquely disciplined team of people who worked with him so that this work was a huge joy, followed by the unexpected performance which was highly applauded in Tokyo and then the following year we took it to Osaka and played another season. However, because neither Tamasaburo nor I were in favour of committing this to film, as I've already mentioned, we made the film 'Nastasia' in Warsaw, and the film exists to this day. But a film will always provide the opportunity to edit whereas here suddenly I had the essence of theatre, its soul, something that can't be created anywhere else, the astonishing transformation that you can suddenly see.