Theatre of Dreams, Theatre of Play: Nō & Kyōgen in Japan ed. by Khanh Trinh, and: Evita, Inevitably: Performing Argentina’s Female Icons Before and After Eva Perón by Jean Graham-Jones, and: The Avant-Garde and the Popular in Modern China: Tian Han and the Intersection of Performance and Politics by Liang Luo (review)

Theatre of Dreams, Theatre of Play: Nō & Kyōgen in Japan. Edited and introduced by Khanh Trinh. Seattle: The University of Washington Press, 2015; 236 pp.; illustrations. $55.00 paper.

An amalgamation of art book and nōhgaku treatise, this beautiful new work was originally a companion book for an exhibit of nō at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2014. The introduction by Japanese art curator Khanh Trinh succinctly frames nō in Japan’s performing art tradition and could effectively serve as a starting point for undergraduates to understand the essence of nō. Individual aspects of nō are explored by scholars of Japanese history and arts in the subsequent short chapters. The first chapter reveals nō’s 600-year history up to modern times using the theories of Zeami. Chapter 2 focuses on Lady Aoi (c. 1435 CE), giving readers a detailed plot summary with quotes and pictures. The subsequent chapters discuss the art’s material culture by highlighting nō and kyō gen masks, costumes, and coloring. The entire second half of the book is devoted to full-color photographs of stunning nō and kyō gen costumes, masks, and woodblock prints. Close-up pictures of hundred-year-old drums, flutes, and libretti direct the reader’s attention to the much-overlooked musical accompaniment. Expansive notes on each photograph and illustration are provided at the end of the book. As a great resource for students and scholars alike, the book would benefit from the inclusion of a table of contents and glossary.

Evita, Inevitably: Performing Argentina’s Female Icons Before and After Eva Perón. By Jean Graham-Jones. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2014; 282 pp.; illustrations. $80.00 cloth, $37.50 paper, e-book available.

Finding an inroad to discussing the phenomenon of Eva Perón through performance, Jean Graham-Jones takes an incisive look at Argentina’s most prominent female icon. Her introduction highlights the cultural phenomenon that Evita has become, with a special focus on Marvin Carlson’s theory of “ghosting,” Joseph Roach’s theory of surrogation, and Marvin Kempe’s ideas of the icon to show how and why cultural myths are constructed. Invoking Regina Janes’s term “femicons,” she surveys three important female figures in Argentine history (Camila O’Gorman, “Difunta” Correa, and pop star Gilda) and compares their depiction(s) to that of Eva Perón’s. Chapter 1 looks at Camila O’Gorman, whom Graham-Jones identifies as Argentina’s first “femicon,” and discusses the life, death, and mythologizing of this controversial and scandalous figure. Chapter 2 opens with a discussion of the reception of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita (1976) and the Argentine responses to the mega-musical’s worldwide success. Graham-Jones constructs a feminist historiography by taking a critical perspective on Evita’s life as reconstructed in drama and film. The next two chapters discuss in-depth the after-death mythologization of Evita in dialogue with the “secular saints” of Latin America. Graham-Jones showcases the “femicon” phenomena in the realm of culture, highlighting the similarities in the deification of Evita and the pop singer Gilda. Graham-Jones’s citation of internet resources and digital performances of “femicons” make the book current and the several pictures of performance and art contribute concrete visuals. Both graduate and undergraduate students interested in performance studies, feminism, and even postcolonial theory will find the scholarship in this book valuable.

The Avant-Garde and the Popular in Modern China: Tian Han and the Intersection of Performance and Politics. By Liang Luo. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2014; 367 pp.; illustrations. $80.00 cloth, $37.50 paper, e-book available.

By putting the Chinese cultural official, writer, and activist Tian Han in dialogue with international avantgarde artists, Liang Luo shows how Tian’s work is transnational...