On the Skin of Smoke

I had been interested in Kijo no Kuron's plays for a while, but the timing never worked out.

This time, seeing the names Shintaro Anzai and Yoshiki Tani listed, I thought, 'I want to go see this!' and I was finally able to watch their performance.

To put it simply, I found a play that I absolutely love.

There were almost no blackouts; characters would come and go, performing their scenes. They were in corners of a certain world, seemingly intersecting but never quite meeting. Even though these were events happening to people nearby, the people in the previous scene didn't know what was happening in the current one. However, they remained on stage, watching that scene intently from a different space. I found this direction skillful and loved it. I'm not sure if my interpretation is correct, though.

A wonderful person to someone might be an incredibly bad person to someone else. Humans live in multiple communities. Where we place our priorities, or the parts of us that are incredibly selfish. But I think that if we don't make those choices, we can't hold onto everything. Besides, humans can't control all of their emotions. Are emotions that can be controlled even real? We might lose to unexpected temptations, or think we are considering someone else's feelings when it's actually just our own ego.

As an audience member, I was able to see the world of the people here, the events that happened in the lives of several people, all of it. That's why there was so much I could understand.

This person was hurt now because they had this experience in the past. They've completely forgotten that they were angry when someone else did the same thing to them, and now they are doing something similar to another person. A casual line from someone might be a fatal wound or a trauma for someone else.

No matter how close we are, we don't know everything about a person's life. We might spend our whole lives misunderstanding things that happened outside of the very short time we spent together. We unconsciously save people, and we also hurt them.

Sometimes, a single unexpected word from someone can make the pieces that never fit together finally click into place.

There are a lot of time-leap stories these days, but I'm not a fan. I think the impact of just one word or one action is huge. I believe there are people whose entire lives change because of that. It's not something that can be depicted so easily. Watching this play made me think about that.

People's lives are difficult. Some people are fulfilled even when things don't go well, while others are a mess even when things are going well. I suppose you wouldn't call that 'going well,' though.

Every single actor was wonderful, and they lived their roles so realistically that I felt a jolt of anxiety, wondering if I had ever unconsciously hurt someone by doing the same thing to others, and it was painful for a long time. I'm close in age to the main characters, and the daily lives of people trying to survive in society overlapped with my own.

I also loved the stage set. There were many chairs and lights placed around, and they were moved by the performers themselves for each scene.

That was it. It was somewhat similar to the source of the actors I support, and for me, it was a familiar charm. It was interesting.

There are many specific scenes I liked or that made me feel overwhelmed, but I won't say them yet. It is currently being performed at CBGK Shibugeki!! until next Sunday. If your schedule allows, please go and see it for yourself.

P.S. Congratulations on the final performance!