Stéphane Ferrandez
Discover the art of "seated stand-up" with France's first Rakugo performer: Stéphane Ferrandez!
About Rakugo
This traditional storytelling art dates back to the 16th century. Rakugo is the art of "speech with a punch line." This punch line often takes the simple form of a pun. In a codified art, the storyteller kneels on a cushion and can only move his upper body. This formal constraint forces the performer to develop all his vocal and rhythmic abilities, sparing his effects to exacerbate the expected punch line better.
With his two accessories, the fan and the cloth napkin, the rakugoka can bring to life all the characters of the Edo period (1603-1868): a samurai, a wealthy merchant, a geisha, or the neighborhood idiot. The Rakugo's repertoire and teaching contain all the memories of the trades, gestures, and words of the "floating world." It's to see this living heritage that people come to the yose, the theaters dedicated to iro mono: the traditional arts of Japanese speech. At the end of medieval Japan, Anrakuan Sakuden (1554-1642), a great preacher, wrote the first collection of these stories, Seisuishô or "Laughter to chase away sleep." Thus, Rakugo also comes from Buddhism and Zen humor.
Today, these stories are still told by numerous storytellers who keep audiences laughing, both in theaters and on television: Katsura Koharudanji, San Yûtei Enraku, Shunpûtei Shôta, Hayashiya Taihei... All these storytellers bear the surname of the master who taught them the art of Rakugo, a name whose prestige sometimes goes back beyond the Meiji era (1868).
Culture at the service of fun, some tradition for laughing: this is the motto of France's only Rakugo performer, Stéphane Ferrandez.
Stéphane Ferrandez is an ethnologist, narrator and a Rakugo performer.
He traveled around the world for over 20 years leaving in its wake the tales and rhythms of instruments from five continents.
Winner of the 2009 Kujoyama award, he is the first French to be trained in the art of Rakugo by Japanese masters of the spoken word. He works with author Sandrine Garbuglia, with whom he founded Compagnie Balabolka in 2006.
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