It's a trap!
Feb. 15th, 2009 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blodeueddToday I saw a play with Jill and Laura, and it turns out it actually has a name: 罠 (wana: trap, snare). Up until now, we'd been calling it "the Kazuki play". XD What? He plays the lead role!
罠 (Piège pour un homme seul)
We knew nothing about this when we bought the tickets, apart from the fact that Kazuki was in it. Sort of like when we got the tickets for Oasis solely on the basis of KenKen's participation. But this play did not turn out to be a musical. Would have been awesome if it had, though!
While looking up the kanji on the ticket, I noticed that the playwright's name was not Japanese, so used Google for its intended purpose, i.e. trying to figure out what the original title and language of this "Wana" were. It turns out that it's translated from a French play by Robert Thomas, Piège pour un homme seul (the title was familiar to me, though not the story, so I guess I came across it at some point in my literature classes, perhaps). I also found a summary of the plot, and thought it would be a good idea to print it out so we had a basic idea of what it was before we sat down to watch.
I'm glad I did, because I wouldn't have understood much more than the basic plot; between some super-fast dialogue, a main character (Kazuki) who may or may not be crazy, secondary characters who may or may not be conspiring against him, and the fact that it's all talk-driven, it was hard enough to follow some parts even though I knew what was happening. This way, I could concentrate on the dialogue and try to understand more of the details.
So, plot! A very basic summary.
Daniel Corban reports to the police that his wife has gone missing after an argument. They've only been married three months, after a whirlwind romance, and no one in town has had time to really get to know Elizabeth. The village priest shows up with something for Elizabeth, then announces to a stunned Daniel that his wife is standing outside. She comes in, but, dai shokku! It isn't really Elizabeth!
At least, that's what Daniel says -- he claims he's never seen this woman before in his life. But she seems to know lots of things that only Elizabeth would know, and the policeman, as well as the priest, begin to make Daniel doubt himself. Still, he thinks that this stranger is after the money he recently inherited. When a wandering artist shows up, and tries to drink all Daniel's liquor, Daniel recognises him as an artist he met while on his honeymoon with Elizabeth. Excited, he asks the artist to draw a portrait of Elizabeth to prove that the imposter is not her.
This episode ends with "Elizabeth" shooting the artist, and it becomes very clear that "Elizabeth" and the priest are in on something together, as they frame Daniel for the shooting. Next, a nurse is brought in to vouch for "Elizabeth"'s identity, but then it turns out that the imposter and the priest were paying her, but cheated her, and she offers to side with Daniel if he pays enough. "Elizabeth" and the priest come back, give her even more money, and she goes back to their side.
The shocking conclusion to the story comes when Daniel, now a nervous wreck, confesses to the murder of Elizabeth a few days previously. Then we learn that the whole thing was a set-up, as the police had already found the body: all they needed was a confession.
Oh, and I neglected to mention the attemps at "poisoning" Daniel, which were really just to mess with his mind.
Part of the fun was seeing Kazuki stalk around the stage like a man possessed. I thought the acting was very good, though I'm undecided about Kazuki during the first little bit. Daniel weeps and carries on about his missing wife, and it's a bit too much. However, if you know the ending, you know he's acting (Daniel is, I mean, not just the actor), so it makes sense. I wonder what I would have thought had I not known the story beforehand...
There was a single set, the living room of the Corban home, with simple mid-century decor, though there was an inexplicable shag rug in shades of cream, orange and yellow under the sofa. The lighting was simple, but nicely conveyed different times of day. Costume-wise, I was a bit confused. The play was written in 1960, and while Daniel, the nurse and the priest were all dressed in approximately period clothes -- and I guess Merluche was too, since he's supposed to be crazy wandering artist -- Elizabeth's red gown looked like a modern ballroom dancing outfit, and the policeman was wearing what looked like a tuxedo jacket. On the whole, enough things were "right" to make the things that weren't look out of place; if they were going for timeless, as in "at no specific period in time", they should have either gone for a more homogenous style, or mixed it up more.^_^
I admit I was looking forward to how (badly) the names would be pronounced, and the winner was definitely Merluche, which in Japanese becomes Merurusshu. XD
Now, I haven't read or seen the play in the original French, but the wikipedia page uses the word "rocambolesque" to describe it, so it would seem it's a comedy. ^_^ This version, however, was played rather seriously, apart from Merluche, who's a funny character, and a couple of other laughs.
Conclusion: interesting play, good acting, random Hawaiian porn music (as Jill described it XD), and Kazuki is pretty.
That's it for me, I'm off to sleep.
罠 (Piège pour un homme seul)
We knew nothing about this when we bought the tickets, apart from the fact that Kazuki was in it. Sort of like when we got the tickets for Oasis solely on the basis of KenKen's participation. But this play did not turn out to be a musical. Would have been awesome if it had, though!
While looking up the kanji on the ticket, I noticed that the playwright's name was not Japanese, so used Google for its intended purpose, i.e. trying to figure out what the original title and language of this "Wana" were. It turns out that it's translated from a French play by Robert Thomas, Piège pour un homme seul (the title was familiar to me, though not the story, so I guess I came across it at some point in my literature classes, perhaps). I also found a summary of the plot, and thought it would be a good idea to print it out so we had a basic idea of what it was before we sat down to watch.
I'm glad I did, because I wouldn't have understood much more than the basic plot; between some super-fast dialogue, a main character (Kazuki) who may or may not be crazy, secondary characters who may or may not be conspiring against him, and the fact that it's all talk-driven, it was hard enough to follow some parts even though I knew what was happening. This way, I could concentrate on the dialogue and try to understand more of the details.
So, plot! A very basic summary.
Daniel Corban reports to the police that his wife has gone missing after an argument. They've only been married three months, after a whirlwind romance, and no one in town has had time to really get to know Elizabeth. The village priest shows up with something for Elizabeth, then announces to a stunned Daniel that his wife is standing outside. She comes in, but, dai shokku! It isn't really Elizabeth!
At least, that's what Daniel says -- he claims he's never seen this woman before in his life. But she seems to know lots of things that only Elizabeth would know, and the policeman, as well as the priest, begin to make Daniel doubt himself. Still, he thinks that this stranger is after the money he recently inherited. When a wandering artist shows up, and tries to drink all Daniel's liquor, Daniel recognises him as an artist he met while on his honeymoon with Elizabeth. Excited, he asks the artist to draw a portrait of Elizabeth to prove that the imposter is not her.
This episode ends with "Elizabeth" shooting the artist, and it becomes very clear that "Elizabeth" and the priest are in on something together, as they frame Daniel for the shooting. Next, a nurse is brought in to vouch for "Elizabeth"'s identity, but then it turns out that the imposter and the priest were paying her, but cheated her, and she offers to side with Daniel if he pays enough. "Elizabeth" and the priest come back, give her even more money, and she goes back to their side.
The shocking conclusion to the story comes when Daniel, now a nervous wreck, confesses to the murder of Elizabeth a few days previously. Then we learn that the whole thing was a set-up, as the police had already found the body: all they needed was a confession.
Oh, and I neglected to mention the attemps at "poisoning" Daniel, which were really just to mess with his mind.
Part of the fun was seeing Kazuki stalk around the stage like a man possessed. I thought the acting was very good, though I'm undecided about Kazuki during the first little bit. Daniel weeps and carries on about his missing wife, and it's a bit too much. However, if you know the ending, you know he's acting (Daniel is, I mean, not just the actor), so it makes sense. I wonder what I would have thought had I not known the story beforehand...
There was a single set, the living room of the Corban home, with simple mid-century decor, though there was an inexplicable shag rug in shades of cream, orange and yellow under the sofa. The lighting was simple, but nicely conveyed different times of day. Costume-wise, I was a bit confused. The play was written in 1960, and while Daniel, the nurse and the priest were all dressed in approximately period clothes -- and I guess Merluche was too, since he's supposed to be crazy wandering artist -- Elizabeth's red gown looked like a modern ballroom dancing outfit, and the policeman was wearing what looked like a tuxedo jacket. On the whole, enough things were "right" to make the things that weren't look out of place; if they were going for timeless, as in "at no specific period in time", they should have either gone for a more homogenous style, or mixed it up more.^_^
I admit I was looking forward to how (badly) the names would be pronounced, and the winner was definitely Merluche, which in Japanese becomes Merurusshu. XD
Now, I haven't read or seen the play in the original French, but the wikipedia page uses the word "rocambolesque" to describe it, so it would seem it's a comedy. ^_^ This version, however, was played rather seriously, apart from Merluche, who's a funny character, and a couple of other laughs.
Conclusion: interesting play, good acting, random Hawaiian porn music (as Jill described it XD), and Kazuki is pretty.
That's it for me, I'm off to sleep.
