“Every
one of us has a dwarf living deep within … We are trying not
to crush it, crush it, no never.”
Every line, refreshing. Each a gem in itself.
Suzue Toshiro, a young Kyoto-based playwright, and Matsumoto Yuko,
an emerging young director of the Bungakuza troupe, work
together for the first time in this play, guiding a fresh, new cast
who artfully depict man and woman. The lines sound all too common
at first, but are actually meticulously built one on top of another
to create a carefully crafted staging, which strikes at the nostalgia
deep within every one of us.
The female teacher is acted by Yuki Nae, an actress known to many
theatre-goers and TV watchers. Playing her high school student is
Shigeyama Ippei, an actor of kyogen comic dramas renowned for his
eagerness to venture also into many other different kinds of dramatic
performance. Dan Tomoyuki, a young and energetic actor from the
Seinenza troupe, plays the role of the teacher working at the same
high school as Yuki. Together, the three splendid artists bring
the stage alive.
This play is delivered in the language of the youth today, and reflects
both the brighter and darker sides of their existences.
Synopsis
It is spring, just as the new school term is beginning. Yuki, a
high school English teacher, and Sanpei, one of her male students
enter a traditional inn in a town known for its paper-making. The
couple, teacher student, is in love. But with their relationship
known to those around them, it is expected that they will make a
public vow to break up on this very day.
The two, who had been concerned about what others might think of
them, at last begin to focus on each other, finally finding the
words they had been searching for.
That’s when Yuki’s coworker, Ishida, appears. He has
found the inn that the couple is staying at from the slimmest of
clues. He reproaches not so much the relationship between the two
as the way each is living their life. “Each of us is alone
in this world, yet each of us tries to make the most of life.”
Ishida’s words eliminate the lovers’ choices one after
another, until......
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