The Woman in Black, which has been played for 19
years at the Fortune Theatre in London. The drama was exported to Japan
in 1992, directed by Robin Herford, and have been played some times for
years. Hearing that “Japanised” version would be re-imported to the
Fortune Theatre as “Japanese Week”, I couldn’t help but buying the
tickets without any thoughts.
The actors are Takaya Kawakami and Haruhiko Saito. Sounds like it is a
horror story…but no any other information. But isn’t it so interesting
that a classic drama which was born in England went to Japan and come
back to London?
As I went to see it with my British boyfriend, I booked Dress circle sheets which English subtitles are available. The theatre was very small and almost all of audience were Japanese. I wish I could seen English people’s reaction, but Kamikawa is such a popular actor in Japan, so this is a natural consequence.
The story begins by a lawer, Kipps (Saito), starting to read a scenario in a small theatre. He had experienced a horrific time in the past, and to escape from the nightmare, he decided to tell the story to his family. He hired a young actor to teach him how to do “story-telling”, but the actor, being surprised by Kipps’s inability to “act”, suggested that he plays the role of young Kipps, and Kipps plays the other characters. And then their rehearsal starts…
Kipps’s horror experience seemed a very orthodox ghost story at first, and didn’t sound scary at all. But as the story goes, the sense of horror increases little by little, and it flooded with terror at the end. Can you imagine the situation you have to stay alone in an isolated old mansion (with a cemetery) in English country side for a few nights?
I felt that the sense of horror in England and Japan is similar somehow. There was a basic creepy sensation like “The ring” (Japanese horror film) rather than just using “surprise” or showing “gros”. And in a complicated “play within a play”, along with revealing the background story, the feeling of horror and antipathy grows as well. I think the popularity in Japan is quite reasonable.
Anyway, despite the simplicity of the stage and casts, two actors were successfully creating the air of terror. Kamikawa was a bit too “British young man”, but his performance to express horror was outstanding at the last half. On the contrary, Saito silently played old Kipps, who looked so serious, and the other characters, with amazing contrast. The critical point of this type of play should be how much they can evoke audience’s imagination, but they were true professional. You can’t miss any scenes both comical and serious.
The all script was in Japanese, but their conversations were quite British. The way they act might be very Japanese, but their clothes, setting, direction were quite British as well. I could experience such a unique atmosphere.
Well, now I feel like I should go to see the original English version…
