Kyogen

Kyogen are short plays 10-25 minutes long. Kyogen were plays that usually looked at the funny side of life. The lives of people were studied in the plays to show that not all things work out the way that they are supposed to. Kyogen were kind of like sit-coms. The everyday occurances of ordinary people were acted out on stage. Things did not happen as everyone thought. The rich man could be made fun of by the poor man, the thief would not be successful and get his due. The one with beauty may not get the handsome boyfriend, the ugly duckling may.

Enclosed are pictures of some masks used by Kyogen performers. The devil mask looks MEAN but if the actor looks up to the sky then it looks as if it smiling. Things are not as they appear in Kyogen theatre.