Shinjuku Ryozanpaku 'Ai no Kojiki / Alibaba' and Me (Impressions)

Shinjuku Ryozanpaku 79th Performance 'Ai no Kojiki / Alibaba'
Congratulations on the safe opening of all performances and reaching the grand finale!🎈

Since I don't have a good memory, I can't really analyze the content, but I want to record the feelings that welled up from the part of me that loves theater and the part of me that is a fan of Mr. Yasuda.

First of all, thank you so much to the follower who invited me (crying). This is the one thing I really have to say (crying).

I've seen plays in tents about twice before on the tatami mats of the Red Tent, so I enjoyed Hanazono Shrine while savoring the differences in atmosphere, like how the seating is set up differently between the Red and Purple tents, and wondering if the scale is also a bit different.
I don't collect goshuin (shrine stamps), but the paper-cut goshuin was so cute that I bought it.

Also, the troupe members talk to the audience a lot.
It goes without saying, but because their voices carry so well, they were easy to hear even without microphones, and they kept making announcements about the temperature and lost items due to the location.
Ever since this performance was announced, I've felt that they were really thinking about how to minimize the anxiety of first-time theatergoers and ensure they could come without any trouble, regarding merchandise and theater etiquette.
Thank you so much, truly.

I couldn't check the script or anything, so I just kept a rough outline in my head while watching.
This was my first time seeing a tent performance during this time in June, and I thought the way the unique lines, volume, and speed of Kara's works are packed with loneliness and humidity fits this damp season perfectly.
The previous play starring Mr. Yasuda, 'Calling from the Girl City,' was right in the middle of August, and that was good in its own way, especially the last scene.

I feel that Kara Juro's works have an ambition to write about 'existences that tend to be made invisible' or 'the responsibility of love' (though I think it depends on the work), and 'Ai no Kojiki / Alibaba' also had many heavy things that exist but are invisible, such as the existence and voice of a child who should have been there, the responsibility of guardians, and the person one truly seeks hidden deep within love.
Also, as I tweeted right after watching, in the Kara Juro works I've seen so far, I felt that the target of 'responsibility' for a life that wasn't born was directed only at biological women, and I didn't like that aspect while thinking, 'Well, it's probably an expression of the sensibilities of the time it was written,' but in 'Alibaba,' it seemed like the target of that responsibility was scattered among people other than women.
It might be expressed more in works I haven't seen, and I don't know if that's exactly as written in the script, but near the end of 'Alibaba,' I felt like I could finally empathize, thinking, 'No, that's right! It's you, or rather, it's your fault!!'
I'm sure this impression is heavily influenced by my own sensibilities and policies...

I ended up talking about men and women in terms of the birth of life and responsibility, but 'Alibaba' and 'Calling from the Girl City' have easy-to-understand roles for aborted fetuses, and 'Calling from the Girl City' has Taguchi's feelings for Arisawa, and this time in 'Ai no Kojiki,' there are themes like race, family environment, and physical disabilities, and in 'Invisible Man,' there's the sex industry; I find it impressive that he writes so painfully and thoroughly about people, feelings, and environments that are, as I wrote at the beginning, 'tended to be made invisible' (note: not 'saving' them).

Also, I feel that the 'women' in Kara Juro's works, the key characters, are often portrayed as innocent, curious, and humid in atmosphere, yet seem like they might easily go somewhere else, tend to make impulsive decisions out of love, or are obsessed with something—characters that mimic so-called pure, innocent girls.
To be honest and direct, I've always had a slight disgust that he seems to be romanticizing their existence around female genitalia or the womb, or that he is dreaming of 'womanhood,' or rather 'virginity' or 'girlhood,' and that these characters were created (written) by someone who is biologically 'male'.

I don't know if this disgust is because I am biologically 'female,' my own longing for the humanity I mentioned earlier, a feeling that such romantic things don't exist, or a difference in sensibility due to the times or the individual.
This disgust, or rather discomfort, didn't change much even after watching this performance.
I probably won't ever understand it, it won't change, and the grit will remain.
And I also think this disgust is not an absolute evil, nor is it something that must be corrected.

Surely Kara Juro is a romanticist, and perhaps that's why he can see reality so well and mix painful realism into his stories. I don't know, though... (cowardly)
But if it's Kara Juro, who can write stories, emotions, and dreams so boldly with such romanticism, regardless of whether it's good or bad, I feel like he would listen to dream stories, feelings of love, jealousy, desires, and views on life and death that would be laughed at if told to someone else, without making fun of them. I don't know about this either, though.

Seeing the smell of war expressed in an easy-to-understand way, the expression of Manchuria, which is likely one of Kara Juro's roots, and the sight of people who were doing staff work until just a moment ago standing on stage as actors, all because of these stories about life, love, family environment, life, and the emotions and thoughts held due to each person's loneliness and difficulty in living, I thought that the world doesn't change easily, but when it does, it happens in an instant, and perhaps it's only because of our daily lives and society that we can be conscious of and savor the extraordinary (theater).
The reason I was conscious of 'people who were doing staff work until just a moment ago standing on stage as actors' during the performance wasn't because I or the actors weren't concentrating on the play, but because of the realism scattered throughout the script I mentioned earlier and, after all, the 'tent' style.
The extraordinary that I am enjoying is someone's profession, labor, craftsmanship, and culture; it's a kind of attraction where you can experience that it's just a fiction drawn from non-fiction, and that if you step out, it's the same ordinary life.

When it comes to Kara Juro's works, the 'privileged body theory' comes up in interviews with the performers and such. I haven't gotten my hands on the books that detail the content, and I've been watching the tents while wondering what that means, but the impression that it's different from acting where the actor is possessed or from 'ate-gaki' (writing roles specifically for actors) has become stronger.
As a rough image, I thought it might be a way of thinking that centers on the 'actor' above all else.
If anything, I feel it's related to 'daily life and theater being continuous,' and even if it's not 'ate-gaki,' the character speaks precisely because that person has their own power.
Hmm, maybe I still don't really get it! Sorry!

I said earlier that there's a strong longing for virginity or girlhood, but the costumes for the female characters are always wonderful... Bin-ko in Alibaba had lively colors, the children wore layers of white and ivory, making them look like characters from another world, and the ethnic costumes, I suppose, in 'Ai no Kojiki' were also wonderful.
The slight disgust I wrote about earlier might indeed be because I have a longing for girlhood myself.

Also, it made me want to watch the drama BG and listen to Morning Musume.
The pacing of the easy-to-understand comedic parts is amazing.
Thank you for letting Mr. Yasuda dance to Morning Musume.
Thank you, Mr. Yasuda, for dancing.
Also, when the topic of BG came up, you looked up at the sky, but I feel like that's not quite right.
(He's incredibly energetic)

Also, someday I want to be in the front row, be handed plastic, and get splashed with water.

I'm still far from understanding it, but my vitality was stimulated by this tent performance after such a long time!
The Shinjuku Ryozanpaku members, who moved energetically and guided us both before and after the performance, looked like they were having fun, and I was happy to see the good expressions on the faces of people involved in theater.
Those good expressions and that atmosphere made me feel that they will continue to create powerful things.

From here on, I'll talk about Mr. Yasuda.
Above all, I was truly, truly happy to see my beloved Mr. Yasuda appearing as a part of the world of the work he desired!
I was happy to hear him talk about what Kara Juro's works are like, what kind of person Kara Juro is, how he felt when he met him, his desire to stand on that stage someday, his reports of 'I'm off' every day after the opening, and his inner thoughts, to see the changes in his facial expressions during the play at a distance you don't often get, and to see the curtain at the back being opened at Mr. Yasuda's cue during the classic final tent dismantling, releasing us to the sea outside the tent.
(Even though I give tons of examples, the second half is weak)

I'll say this assuming spoilers are okay, but that time in 'Ai no Kojiki' when he goes from Asahi Life to a military policeman was unbearable!!!!!!!!!! I watched with thrills as his face changed before my eyes.
I realized this is what it means for your blood to boil.

Somehow, while most moments when someone's dream or 'I want to do this!' comes true are things you realize later, like 'Oh, that was the moment,' or you don't even realize you're in the middle of it, or they are just casual moments, the time I spent watching while thinking, 'Ah, it's coming true right now,' was filled with happiness and yet somehow mysterious.
Also, I was watching while thinking that my encounter with the work where I first saw Mr. Yasuda on stage about 10 years ago led to this tent.

Sorry for talking about myself, but that was the first time I 'went to the theater' of my own volition after I was old enough to know better, and since I believe that was the beginning of theater taking root in my daily life, that was also a mysterious feeling.

Seeing him speak so vividly in that world and seeing him stretch his arms out as much as he could toward the scenery beyond the collapsed tent (toward Kara Juro) to greet him, I thought once again that I hope Mr. Yasuda can continue to stand on stage, in front of people, as long as he wants to.
If there's ever an opportunity for him to tell us what he was thinking when he stood there or what he came to think, I'd like to hear it.
Of course, it can be a secret.

I sincerely respect the way you never give up on conveying and inheriting the culture, spirit, and feelings related to yourself, not limited to theater, and continue to take action.

A friend who found out I was able to go see the Purple Tent asked me what it was and what kind of play it was, and I was able to think that 'going to the theater' is also a way of inheriting and spreading it, so I want to continue watching things I'm interested in at my own pace.

I just watched Mr. Yasuda on my own and met him on my own, but once again, thank you for giving me an encounter with theater.
After all this time, I am happy to see Mr. Yasuda in the middle of his dream coming true!

I will continue to watch over you as you encounter various stories, songs, people, cultures, and various emotions.
Once again, congratulations and thank you for your hard work.
I'm looking forward to the Kansai dialect version too!!

Although what I can do, the scope of what I can reach, and the capacity of the vessel I have to accept things are limited,
I hope for a world where no one is discriminated against or exposed to danger, and that theater can continue to live on and fulfill its role of passing things on.