BThe principal actor, who often plays a ghost or spirit and usually wears a mask in that role
CThe comic performer who appears only in separate short farces
DThe leader of the audience applause
The shite carries the central role and the main dance. The waki is the secondary character, often a traveling monk, and the comic interludes and separate farces belong to kyōgen performers.
Question 2 True / False
Noh drama aims at realistic everyday speech and fast-paced physical action.
TTrue
FFalse
Answer: False
Noh is chanted and danced with slow, controlled movement. Its plays look backward through memory and dream, and Zeami valued yūgen, a quiet and profound beauty, over realism or excitement.
Question 3 Multiple Choice
Which pattern describes many 'dream' Noh plays (mugen noh)?
ATwo lovers marry after a series of comic misunderstandings
BA traveler, often a monk, meets a local figure who later reveals a true identity as a ghost and relives a key moment from life
CA detective solves a murder in a single location
DA king is overthrown and his kingdom divided
In Zeami's Atsumori, for example, a monk who was once the warrior who killed the young Atsumori meets a reaper who turns out to be Atsumori's ghost. The second half stages the ghost's memory of the battle.
Question 4 Short Answer
Both Greek tragedy and Noh use a chorus. Give one similarity and one difference.
Think about your answer, then reveal below.
Model answer: Similarity: in both, the chorus sings or chants and helps tell the story and express its emotion. Difference: the Noh chorus sits at the side of the stage and often chants the lines of the main character as he dances, while the Greek chorus danced in the orchestra and spoke as a group character such as citizens or elders.
Comparing the two forms shows how a chorus can serve narration and feeling in different ways. In Noh the chorus can voice the shite's own words, so speaker and singer are separated.