Many many years ago, I saw the Kodo drummers, a taiko group, and fell in love with their art form, its physicality, its beat, its rhythms. Founded in 1981, they now have their own village.
Tonight’s Drum Tao from Oita, Japan, formed 31 years ago, is similar with its dedication, its range of Wadaiko drums, Shamisen (sort of three-string guitar), Shinobue (high-pitched flutes, traverse and end-blown like a recorder) and Koto (a thirteen or seventeen-string zither style harp). There is one pair of small cymbals, too.
This is their London debut, and the Peacock theatre is sold out. I am late to see the show, and they will have moved on to pastures new by the time this review goes up. They tour globally and usually sell out. In 2020, they opened their new permanent outdoor theatre called “TAO no Oka” in the heart of Aso Kuju National Park. They could fill the Royal Festival or Royal Albert Halls, but at least In the Peacock theatre you can see them up close.
I am surprised to see such a mixed audience of all ages, loving it, joining in the clapping, which the drummers encourage, milking the audience for what it’s worth. Some of the out-of-synch clapping drives me crazy, but it’s all about having a good time, being inclusive. My Japanese scholar guest says it's carnivalesque, she’s seen its like at festivals in Japan.
No programme, no cast sheet (just a flyer) makes it difficult to name anyone, so I have to say the ensemble works its socks off. Mostly young men with muscles and cores of steel and two young women, who hold their own with the men—the physicality is outstanding.
Dressed in black and white and silver, in samurai-style costumes, their moves taken from martial arts. Armed with sticks, they dance aikido style (I think). Being close I can observe the different types of drumsticks, too: long thin ones, short heavy fat ones.
It is a show, a variety stage show (they twirl parasols, sticks and a huge metal cube), ancient Japan contemporised. The athletic young men are cheeky, endearing, more comic than serious, making light work of their skills, but what skills, what power. My arms ache just watching them. How they keep it up for two hours is amazing.
I think of Ginger Baker’s hour-long endurance tests, lost in the beat, and it’s that beat that invites us into their realm. Heartbeats in synchronicity... And do the young men wield their Shamisens like rock stars.
I love the Koto zither, such a beautiful sound that tempers the drums. There are solos, duets, quintets, all sorts of permutations and drilled formations, but it is the electrifying percussion skills from the dozen-strong (or thereabouts), that collective dramatic thudding resonance, that thrills.
A therapeutic, chilled-out evening, if maybe a little too long. There’s an encore—of course there is—and merchandise is promoted.