Slain by a Samurai Who Covets a Wife: Kabuki

choi

Steve McElroy, Slain by a Samurai Who Covets a Wife. New York Times, July 6, 2014. (in the Arts&Leisure section of Sunday newspaper).
www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/theat ... lincoln-center.html
(a theater review)

Note:
(a) “‘Kaidan Chibusa no Enoki’ (‘The Ghost Tale of the Wet Nurse Tree’), a 19th-century Japanese ghost story that begins a short run at the Lincoln Center Festival this week. It is the third festival visit by Heisei Nakamura-za 平成 中村 座, a Kabuki company from Tokyo started by Kanzaburo Nakamura XVIII, who was known for his vibrant and often funny influence on this traditional performance style. Mr Kanzaburo died in 2012, and his two sons now run the company.
(i) Jim Breen‘s online Japanese dictionary:
* kaidan 怪談 【かいだん】 (n): “ghost story”
* chibusa 乳房 【ちぶさ】 (n): "breast"
* enoki 《榎; 朴》 【えのき】 (n): "Japanese hackberry (Celtis sinensis var. japonica); Chinese nettle tree"
* za 座 【ざ】 (n): "(6) attaches to the names of theatres, theatrical troupes, and constellations [in the sky]"

(ii) Celtis sinensis
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtis_sinensis
(English: Chinese Hackberry, Chinese: 朴树)
(iii) Ghost of Chibusa Enoki
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_of_Chibusa_Enoki
(怪談乳房榎 [pronounced as] Kaidan chibusa enoki ["no" is absent prior to "enoki"--maybe deliberately to distinguish film title ; a 1958 black-and-white Japanese film)
(iv) In botany, there is no tree called “Wet Nurse Tree.” It is just a translation, for “wet nurse,” as opposed to “breast.”
(v) 平成中村座
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/平成中村座
(a photo showing its home-base theater; 2000年（平成12年）に東京都の浅草で初演された歌舞伎公演で)

translation: a kabuki theater that formed at 2000 (also known as the 12th year of Heisei reign) at Asakusa neighborhood of Tokyo
(vi) Nakamura Kanzaburō XVIII  十八代目 中村 勘三郎
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakamura_Kanzaburō_XVIII
(1955-2012; born Noriaki NAMINO 波野 哲明)

This 目 in Japanese means, besides “eye,” means the same as 第 in Chinese.

(b) “In keeping with Heisei Nakamura-za’s raucous approach, the current show, about the murder of an artist by a samurai who is in love with the artist’s wife, will end with a death match beneath a waterfall”

death map (n):
“1 (In wrestling) a match in which many of the normal rules do not apply, typically leading to a more violent contest
2 (In computer gaming) a mode of play in which the aim is to kill the characters controlled by other players”
www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/english/death-match

(c) In modern kabuki, it is all male, and men play female roles.