this time I deliberately chose a play 'I have nothing to do with'. I mean, there were no siennas I knew well (except for Ouki-san who played a minor role so that I did not see her very much), and the plot did not appeal to me at all
the plot
I do not like Tolstoy and I am not for a minute ashamed I have never read the book itself. the main plot seems to be the type I dislike - something is happening and a lot of things are happening but there is no general line and no comprehensive conclusion, which makes me think in the end if there was any sense in the plot itself. on the other hand, 'tis not the slice of life one can enjoy slowly by admiring every single moment of what one sees. in such cases there is only one thing for me to do...
the story of the main characters did not move me at all, as I could never understand where the love came from and how it happened, and when the characters only keep repeating that they felt some unknown force or that the feeling was so strange they could not understand themselves themselves (how do I put it clearly? when a person cannot understand his own self, that is what I was trying to say...) - I cannot help disbelieving them. the same disbelief followed me through the developments, considering all the further milestones which only made me like 'eh?' and nothing else. nobody could actually decide what he feels, and I could not see where those feeling came from. confessions, quarrels, refusals and making up, deliberate partings and meetings... all in a mess, and I wonder if a mess should impress me that much? what made my impression even more bitter was the fact my lovely Aono-sama portrayed the same woman... my heart was only crying 'nooooo' all the time...
in such a case when the main story presents no interest for me, all that is left for me is to find a 'supporting' character, a minor one who seems to be interesting/attractive/touching/... and follow his story, sympathizing with him and worrying for him every time he is on stage, literally or figuratively
characters and playing
this time 'twas Levin-san. both the character himself and Tatsuki-san were very touching and cute, though I may suppose 'twas Tatsuki-san who made him THAT cute...
BTW, what made me ROFL was the moment when Levin was told by the ladies at the ball that he was sexy. yes, 'twas the way I said and I am not mistaken ^.^
the problem is, loan words in Japanese are apt to go far from their origin, and those ladies using the 'sekushii' word were not impolite, and it did not sound unacceptable in Japanese, but if the word is a loan word, what other translation can be given for it in a dictionary, except for the original one? of couse, if you check Jap-Eng dictionary, it will tell you those ladies told Levin he was sexy, and the moment you imagine the real ball in the real Russia of the 19th century and noble ladies telling a noble young aristo that he is sexy........ you ROFL, do you not?
surprisingly, Asami-san was not for a moment as great as I expected her to be. well, I am not telling all the truth by saying I expected her to be only great. there was something in her image that made me think she might turn out to be the type I do not like, but I hoped - yes, 'tis the proper word, I believe - hoped that she would still be great. and what a disappointment, she was not
of course, 'tis my humble opinion that she was not, as she might be quite enough for someone, but I prefer when an actor/ress can show everything that he/she feels with all the means he/she has. and Asami-san was only doing it with her voice, but nothing was written on her face, nothing was ever exposed by her gestures or movements, to say nothing of look
perhaps, I am even wrong in saying about her voice. no, she was not doing anything special, she was simply singing as usual, and it turned out that her singing ability is great, but I could not see she put her feelings into singing. it sounded as if her voice was separate from herself, judging by the way she looked while singing. and that made me feel awkward... and that is not good >___<
there were, though, some interesting moments which literally opened a new way to enjoy Zuka performances for me. the dance which was to create an impression that the guys were riding horses was a real creation of a genius, so beautifully the obstacles jumping and high speed riding were intertwined with usual dancing movements. another interesting invention was the following scene where Karenin is singing about his wife and all the other characters are moving as if they were shown in a slow speed motion, but then both the speed of movements goes faster and the music tempo also increases. that was a marvellous trick which was marvellously performed
we are possibly used to seeing the Top Musumeyaku cry in the end for her lost love/killed husband/... but here is another case - we have, well, not the Top Star literally, but the main otokoyaku crying. that was unusual for me... though I cannot say 'twas a successful attempt...
what was also unsuccessful is the duet of Asami-san and Konno-san. while playing was so-so, their dancing together never looked like a pair dancing, they were always so separate, so obviously trying to escape each other... o_O well, that is not their fault, is it? of course, actors/resses should play together with whoever they are told to, but it might be that those two were not meant to be a combi, eh?
as for the future Yuki Top, Otozuki-san was not very impressing, though she did her job and that might be ok... well, that should be... and of course, seeing her this much (I mean, in such a minor role) is not enough to spot her outstanding qualities that led her to the top...
music
another dance which impressed me was the pair dance of Anna and Vronsky when in Italy, but the reason was not the way of dancing, but a rare arrangement of the melody which was done for harp as a leading instrument. this half-silent half-present piece was an outstanding one, really
however, this calmness and slowness of the music irritated me, coupled with the dark mood and plain repeated parts
the ending
was of course done in the Zukish way, or in a Japanese way, I daresay. though a tragedy, the last words that were emphasized were Anna's thoughts from the diary about how wonderful 'tis to love, etc etc. of course, the common sense and general morale is also present in the last words of the other characters, and we have a typical 'wiseman' - wisewoman, to be precise, who tells us that we must live on and that the ball will start this evening again, implying that the circle of life is unstoppable
well, those kinds of consolating words before closing the curtain never impressed me much, and this time I only said my sceptical 'fie'. no use to try to make me put up with such a story by ending it with some high-flown talk
in general
'tis a great performance, with every element present necessary in a performance to make it great. and I did not like it at all. well, I am in no way regretful about the last 2 hours, but watching performances like this never make me any happier, never inspire me or give me any energy to move in my own life. and you might have noticed that I cannot enjoy something that has no such effect. however, being objective as I am, I should admit this performance is destined for theatre lovers, who care for another things than I do
