Impression notes on Kijo no Kūron's "Peach on the Beach No Escape"
These are my impressions of
Office Sora no Ue Kijo no Kūron #12
"Peach on the Beach No Escape"
which I saw at Theater Sun-mall on the night of February 12th.
=== ===
The kidnapping case that likely served as the motif was sensational and an unbelievable event, so it remained in my memory. However, at the time, I couldn't grasp from the weekly magazines or television reports how such a long-term confinement could have been sustained in that way, or how that state—which seemed extremely precarious from a common-sense perspective—could have continued without collapsing. I was left with a lasting impression that I had only been given the surface-level beginning, middle, and end of the story, and even that felt like it was full of holes. I felt a sense of discomfort in that I could only receive what was inside in a very vague way, as a dried-up concept, from the many explanations given outside the event on the other side of the television screen.
That was the exact opposite in this stage production.
To be honest, for a while after the play started, I couldn't quite grasp the setting of the world on stage. I chose this play based on my expectations from the creator's previous works, and since I sat in the audience without any prior knowledge, I was confused for a while. In the first place, I don't think the creator had any intention of making a socially conscious play by describing or analyzing the details of the incident, even if they used the incident as a pattern or a stepping stone. In fact, the full picture of the events was not traced at the end of the performance to overlap with reality and form a clear image. However, several planted triggers functioned well, the memory of that incident was smoothly drawn out, and the stage shifted to the landscape of the inner thoughts of the parties involved, which I had never received before. While giving glimpses of the fragmentary appearance of the incident on the outside, it vividly weaves the state of those thoughts. There is wavering, irritation, dullness, and a sense of being trapped and resigned. What should I call it? While supplementing the outline of the incident with the audience's own memories as much as necessary, it makes that inner landscape emerge into the story and the stage space as a sensation with a three-dimensional feel.
The actors have a sharpness of expression that doesn't just depict that image on the spot, but delivers it to the audience as sensations, thoughts, and logic within their hearts, and I was brilliantly drawn in. While each of them puts their body on the line to depict the shallowness, heat, and breath of their superficial personalities, there are also presences, movements, and the bringing in and out of colors that constitute the mise-en-scène of the whole, which doesn't stop there. They have the ability to assemble and make the heart's ups and downs, the colors of the moment, the air, and the mass pulse, and I was overwhelmingly captured and captivated. Both beauty and ugliness are woven with an edge that doesn't become vague and cuts through. The tension and sharpness of both the actresses and actors, who do not cheaply round off the helplessness depicted on stage, stand out, supporting the stage and never letting the audience go.
By the end of the performance, I was exhausted as an audience member. I also felt that it was a stage where sophistication and brute force were elevating each other. And within that, beyond what seemed very vivid, raw, and explicit, I think that the core of human existence—which I could not have received otherwise, which I could not tame, and from which I could not escape—was firmly scraped out by these expressions on stage.
By the way, this play is rated R-18, and I realized that there are things that can only be expressed by labeling it R-18 according to social norms.
=== === ===
Office Sora no Ue Kijo no Kūron
#12 "Peach on the Beach No Escape"
@ Theater Sun-mall
Written and Directed by
Yosuke Nakajima
Cast
Keiko Aizawa, Minori Inoue, Naoko Kojima, Matchu Saito, Sachiho Sato, Ayase Tanaka, Ryoma Yazawa, Toru Nakaima, Nau Namba, Ryo Haruyama, Mayu Miura, Asaki Misato, Sayuri Miyajima, Rika Yamada, Noyojin Yamaya, Yuniba