Impressions of the play "Soramume"
I went to see a play I had been secretly looking forward to. It was the new production "Soramume" by the theater company "Gekidan papercraft." Having seen two of their previous works, I've felt that they often create pieces that expand on creative worldviews while leaving room for interpretation through scattered, fragmentary information. When I go to see this company's work, I make sure to get a good night's sleep beforehand, clear my head, and prepare myself to absorb everything. You can find my impressions of their past works, "Sekai ga Asa o Shirotomo" and "Lemon," here.
Synopsis
A town of classmates. All the classmates grew up in this town. Always, even now. And we two classmates are about to become a married couple. But then one day, someone noticed that there was one too many classmates. No one knows when, who, or why there was one too many. But because of that, one must be removed. Let's overcome this crisis together. Those were the days we spent with that feeling.
Spoiler alert from here on
Impressions
A mysterious rumor reaches a newly engaged couple living in a town of classmates: "There is one too many classmates." The wife, entrusted by the teacher who oversees the town to investigate her husband, proceeds with the investigation while feeling confused. Will the wife be able to protect her husband when the time of judgment, the "class reunion," finally arrives?
If you strip away the branches and leaves, it looks like a story of a couple on the run or eloping, where one of them has a secret they can't tell, and they overcome it together even if that secret is seen as treason. However, in reality, rather than the love between the couple, the story focused on the town of classmates where they exist. The town of classmates reminds me of a terrifying village. Mysterious rules and overbearing involvement. The town of classmates, which blindly believes in inexplicable customs, exuded a strangely realistic sense of creepiness. The way they spoke about what would happen if you didn't follow the rules had a horror-like coercive power, similar to being told as a child, "If you don't go to sleep early, a monster will come," or "A bad child like that will be taken away by an ogre."
I also took my hat off to the setting that established the North Star from the beginning so that the audience wouldn't get lost—in other words, deciding the ending of the story. The fact that one classmate had to be eliminated at the class reunion. Because there was a werewolf-like game element, I was able to watch it without getting bored until the end.
What is the message they want to convey?
I described the message of the previous work, "Lemon," as "the weakness of humans who blame fate/society for the problems they should face." On the other hand, I received the message of "Soramume" this time as "the pain of humans struggling and suffering in fate/society." How do you express yourself and fit into a community under inexplicable rules? I feel that this still exists to some extent in the modern world. We tell lies to avoid making the atmosphere awkward, even if it's not for the other person's benefit, using our true feelings and public facade. This is the same as the family at the beginning not being able to tell the housekeeper that the food is bad. It is painful to live in this absurd modern world, but at the very least, we have to accept it.
Finally
The charm of theater is that living, breathing people perform a fictional world right in front of you, taking the audience along with them. However, even if it is a fictional world, the audience secretly wants to have a vicarious experience that they can relate to their own lives. While science fiction allows you to enjoy a worldview far removed from reality, it requires time and devices for explanation (and the audience also uses energy to understand it), and it has the difficulty of being hard to vicariously experience. While Kairo, who is in charge of the scripts, often uses science fiction as a theme, I look forward to seeing how they will expand their future works. Will they come down to the audience's side and create more relatable works (about human relationships, love, etc.), or will they push forward with the world of science fiction, or will they create works where science fiction and reality (the familiar) coexist? If I ever have the chance, I would like to talk to Kairo.