From: Alan Myouka Sondheim <sondheim@PANIX.COM>

Subject: Nikuko Speaks On Her Play

Nikuko on her Noh Play

[I ask her to begin. I am so honored at her consent for this interview!]

Yes, said Nikuko, I seriously wanted to write a Noh play. It's difficult to get the _rhythm_ down, even for a native speaker of Japanese; the language is so obtruse...* And then to simultaneously translate into English, preserving some of the ... richness ... of the original! I worked and worked on it! Think of the interweaving of the sections, the very slight humor and aggressivity of the interlude, the immobility of the ending, and all of this with a technological slant, nonetheless referencing everything from thunder gods to the delicate language of kimono, wabi-sabi as well!**

[Nikuko smiles her wonderful smile I ask her if it will be performed.]

Oh, it will be enacted, have no doubt about it! I think, given the relative shortness of the text, about an hour and a half. The nohkan flute solo is critical; it will fail without it. Only one drum accompaniment; the space that opens up is cyberspace itself, replete with representation of the bygone natural world. It's important that twilight, stillness, the realm of insects, be preserved. Without a doubt!***

[I notice how lovely she is, her short skirt, blouse opened almost to the navel. I murmur Nikuko, Nikuko to myself. She interrupts my reverie.]

Please pay much attention to the lanterns! They must be perfect, beautiful translucent paper of precisely the right color, neither too yellow nor too red, I would say a darker orange. For everything should appear as if it's emerging from the darkness, looking around, trembling, about to hop back in. This isn't bright, this precipice!****

[I begin to say how much I love and appreciate her; she is utterly disarmed, the amazing creature! I ask her about her role in the play.]

About my own role - I didn't want center stage; isn't the writing enough to prove my worth? I'm human just like the rest of you. So I gave the mask to Alan, such typical Japanese gesture I'm afraid! There you have it, the male stage center!*****

[O Nikuko! Any further words? I whisper, barely able to control myself!]

I will _always_ write these balances!******

[And below are some notes I made in my trembling way!]

*abstruse, obscure, abtruse, a truce?

**sabi-wabi?

***There is no tradition of insects _within_ the Noh theater; however, in the beginnings, the plays were held out-of-doors, where all manner of creatures might be expected to drop in.

****She went on to explain that the whole play is on a precipice, her whole life as well, Japan, the hemisphere, earth, everything. That the play is about balance. I think she has been talking with Jennifer.

*****Note the dropping of articles here (not lanterns). And does she imply that the center of the stage is male, or that the male is centered on the stage, or that the male in _this_ Noh happens to be there?

******"balances" unexplained, which seems part and parcel of what might be considered "Nikuko's project."

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