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YOSHIKO TAKEBE performed at Oe Noh Theatre in Kyoto in 2004, the lines were spoken as Japanese operatic chants accompanied by Japanese instruments and chorus. It is worthwhile to compare this complex operatic setting of Come and Go with the Noh device of the protagonist called Shite and the supporting actor called Waki. In Come and Go, the character spoken of in the third person as “she” remains invisible and absent from the stage. The alternation between the whisperer and the listener is reflected in that of the Shite and Waki of the Noh play. With the aid of a bamboo flute called Shakuhachi, the three women in kimono beautifully adopted Noh ‘kata’ for exits and entrances, whispering, and for the final clasping of hands by the three women. On the whole, the silent atmosphere and the rhythmic pattern and form of Come and Go matched well with the style of Noh drama. On the one hand, since Come and Go includes a scene where three women reunite and talk about their old school days, which is more natural, realistic and familiar to the audience, this play may be categorized as “realistic Noh” (genzai Noh) as opposed to “fantasy Noh” (mugen Noh). While Come and Go depicts women who live in the same world as the audience, most of Beckett’s later “ghost” plays can be interpreted through “fantasy Noh.” Yasunari Takahashi referred to Rockaby, “[o]ne of the most curious moments in the play occurs when the woman joins the voice, speaking in unison: “time she stopped.” Although one is reminded of Krapp joining in the laughter of the recorded voice, the closest parallel one can think of will probably be the impression one gets when the Shite in Noh joins the chorus to recite the third-person narrative describing him.”’ While this play seems to be more realistic and familiar compared to Beckett’s other later plays, Come and Go still contains important elements of silence found in Noh drama such as the use of symbolism and yugen, the aesthetics of quiet elegance. The repetition of gestures, which are “the noiseless exit, the shifting of positions on the bench, the leaning over to whisper in the others ear, the significant look, the finger to the lips”® creates a piece of harmonious poetic sentiment. The final line by Flo, “I can feel the rings,”® suggests the eternal shape of a circle. The combination of the invisible rings and the joined hands of the three women “emphasizes both the figures’ absorption in a dream world (where they do wear rings) and the absence and lack of definition of their actual existence.”!° Yasunari Takahashi: Qu’est-ce qui arrive? Some Structural Comparisons of Beckett’s Plays and Noh, in Morris Beja — S. E. Gontarski — Pierre Astier (eds.): Samuel Beckett: Humanistic Perspectives, Columbus, Ohio State University, 105. ® Anna McMullan: Theatre on Trial: Samuel Beckett’s Later Drama, London, Routledge, 1993, 89. ° Samuel Beckett: The Complete Dramatic Works, London, Faber and Faber Limited, 1986, 355. 10) McMullan: Theatre on Trial, 87. * 118 +
