The heart screams, yet still aims for the next... "Dancing Flowering Kale" JACROW

JACROW #36 "Dancing Flowering Kale". Showing at "Za-Koenji 1" until the 12th.

JACROW, which has built a reputation for solid plays featuring motifs like politicians, announced they would be creating a play with an all-female cast, which immediately piqued my interest.
I was curious.

Having seen several JACROW plays before,
within the stories of Showa-era politicians that served as their motifs,
I always felt a bit uneasy about the way women, the politicians' wives, were portrayed.
Of course, I don't mean to criticize, as women in that era (and perhaps even recently or today) were treated that way and lived their lives while struggling.

But this time is different.
The setting is a fictional local city called Momoki City. It's a fictional political party, though one can guess where it might be based. Since the characters are also fictional, the author's writing was truly light and nimble.
According to the cast, they were worried because the script was late, but the play was so good that such struggles faded into the background. I think it was worth the wait.

(I will include some spoilers from here on.)

The characters are the wives of candidates running for city council in this fictional city.
Even though only the wives appear, and even when they are conversing with their husbands, the husbands never appear on stage, yet their presence is brilliantly expressed through the wives' responses.

Despite that, it conveys the sense of life in a politician's household, and even the very breath of the characters, more than enough.
It makes you feel that real wives must also live their lives while being this nervous, hurling insults at each other, being philosophical, or giving up.
(If you want to know what the husbands were saying in those scenes, you should buy the script sold at the venue.)

The story follows these politicians' wives as they
cooperate to support their husbands running for election.
However, the wives, who seemed to be getting along well at first,
get caught up in a scandal triggered by social media, which escalates into a battle of scandals (or perhaps a shouting match? hurling insults?), and the secrets they had been hiding from each other come spilling out one after another, causing the group to fall apart.

The second half, after that happens, is even more unmissable.

There is a parade of lines that seem to gouge out the hearts of the women.
Lines that speak to the nature of men also appear, piercing the heart one after another.

Just as I was thinking about immersing myself fully in this world of "wives" that isn't just about messy, unpleasant things, the curtain falls. Ah, I want to watch a little longer... that was the kind of play it was.

It runs until the 12th. It is being performed at "Za-Koenji 1" in Koenji, Tokyo, so if you are interested, please do go.

P.S.
This time, I was invited by cast member Yui Komazuka to attend.
This play has seats set up on the stage left side for the audience as well,
and for Komazuka fans,
it would be best to choose these seats set up on stage left.
Komazuka's resonant singing voice will be directed toward you, soothing your heart comfortably.

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