Progressing

The mirror panels arrived on Tuesday, so we could work with the whole set that Tsuyoshi created for PLAY 2 PLAY. Nine triangular mirror panelled pillars, each being three meters tall, one meter wide and weighing more than 100 kilos! Poor dancers, in spite of the casters, they have to gather all their strength to move them with accuracy.

To my taste, in spite of their beauty, they are slightly too monolithic a set design and visually take lots of space.

My feeling was proven right after the first run through. Because of the reflections of the dancers on the panels, it was virtually impossible to focus on the dance itself. Jo had to concede it was too much for the viewer.

So he decided to move those pillars as little as possible until past the first half of the piece. At that point, they form a circular glass sanctuary out of which the dancers attempt to escape. It’s a striking scene with a heavy ritualistic tone - yes I know, largely because of the music I wrote.

Jo is now finishing the very last movement, Ewig, the soprano aria sung by Isabelle, which is also a dance solo for Sawako.

What I’ve see so far seems fairly academic to me. But they had just two minutes to show me. I’m quite curious to see the whole scene.

I had been invited to see a performance of Shakespeare’s Macbeth done in Japanese style, with kodo drums and a kabuki actor playing Lady Macbeth.

I feared another endurance art sitting, but the experience proved, if not life-changing, at least interesting and at times inspiring.

I particularly liked the how the director developed the parts of the three witches. They appeared as three uneasily identical girls with their three drummer counterparts. When not needed in the plot, they would join them to play drums and create a very exciting musical background.