What if I were still Kansai-ing it up, mid-August? (Or, Prettyboys + Shakespeare)
25/07/2007My visa didn’t expire until mid-August — had I decided to completely screw college course registration, I could still be in Kansai. Through reading my friends’ emails and blogs, I gather that my life would be similar to spring break: everyone else going to school and cram school constantly (for this is their testing year), and me refusing to go to any such thing, and thus wandering Osaka on my own taking pictures.
So in some sense, I came back at a very good time. Summer break in America is real, and it’s rather priceless.
Being in America, however, does sadly cause me to miss out on an awesome lifechanging event: Oguri Shun, and Narimiya Hiroki (who is apparently one of Yuka’s favorites… who knew?) performed As You Like It three years ago, and now they’re back for more. Shakespeare. Oguri. Narimiya. An unbeatable trio. Oguri stars as Orlando, and Narimiya, Rosalind, as they are going with an all-male cast.
Here’s some promo of it:
I enjoy greatly the voiceover explanation of Narimiya’s character — first they make the point that he’s playing the female lead. And then it is explained that in the story, Rosalind pretends to be a guy. At this point Oguri Shun is like, “I’m so glad it isn’t me,” because it’s apparently easier to act like your own original gender, rather than Narimiya, who says that he tries to figure out how to show the tiny bit of residual, insuppressible femininity of Rosalind while Rosalind is crossdressing.
Similar stuff in this interview, if you can indeed read Japanese.
So this production of As You Like It, or お気に召すまま, is in Tokyo for a few more days, and is coming to Osaka August 3rd – 12th, and I would have SO been there [assuming I successfully found tickets].