"Lovers' Suicides at Imamiya" or "How to Commit Suicide in the Gulbenkian"

Well maybe my title is a little harsh, last night I watched a performance of Lovers' Suicides at Imamiya at the Gulbenkian Centre in Hull.

A brief synopsis, the play is essentially a Japanese Romeo and Juliet. There is Kisa, a 26 year old unmarried seamstress and Jirobei her 21 year old lover, first issue the obvious social one is the age difference (it's set in 1711) Kisa signs a deal to say she will marry another man against her will, together the two lovers break into their master's shop where they believe the contract is being kept but are caught. It is then revealed that the mistress of the shop tore it up and was planning to let the lovers marry anyway, however because of their crimes it cannot happen. In the end the two lovers decide to run away and commit suicide so they can be together.

The play is the 5th mainhouse being put on by Drama students at Hull University this year and I have to say I was greatly disappointed by it. This time it was directed by an outside director, Masako Yuasa, that the department already has links with. From what I has heard around the department about the rehearsal times and the stress that had gone into the show, I was surprised to see a show that could have easily been directed by a student rather than a world renowned director.

The set was quite interesting, with a slightly raised level upstage (I'm assuming on some steel or light deck) The set was all made of wood or had at least been wood stained and there was a very Japanese feel about it. The beginning scene in the boat was effective with material for the river around a wooden boat and I did enjoy the way that the stage came forward around the audience in the pit. There were also projections which I felt were a distraction showing typical Japanese paintings and Japanese music was played before entering the auditorium and before the two acts of the show began. Lights were kept fairy simple, mainly the contrast of steel blues and warmer straw yellows, although there were some flashed to represent lighting. The costumes were traditional Japanese Kimonos although it was fairly obvious which ones had been brought over from Japan and which ones had been made in the department - no fault of Paul Goodman the costume assistant of course because he can't be expected to created several exact replicas of Japanese kimonos.

Now my problem with this play I think was partly due to the hype about it. I thought that going to see a Japanese play directed by a Japanese director. I thought what I would see would be exposing me to a new style of theatre that I hadn't experience before. However what I felt I got was a group of student showing what their idea of Japanese theatre was. I don't know if it was the way that the play was translated, but to go from some flowing metaphoric language to the word "dammit" just didn't feel right, and I wasn't the only one who felt this way.

I don't want to 'do down' the actors, I have seen most of them perform in other pieces of theatre and thought that they were fantastic, I know that they have talent. But I felt that in this play they just weren't pushed in a direction that would show their strengths. My complaints are more of a directorial nature than an acting one, I'm assuming the actors are just following what Masako has asked them to do.

So overall not a success in my view, I just wish for the actors it had been better directed.