Edo Marionette Theatre YOUKIZA
with
Vietnam Youth Theatre
Wild Duck Addiction
(based on Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck)
Adaptation / Direction: Yoji SAKATE (Rinkogun Theatre Company)
Original Play: Henrik IBSEN
Adaptation and Direction: Yoji SAKATE (Rinkogun Theater Company)
Puppet Art: Takayuki TERAKADO
Music and Live Performance: Keisuke OHTA
Cast: Le KHANH (the Vietnam Youth Theatre), etc.
Magosaburo YUKI XII, and Youkiza Puppeteers
http://www.youkiza.jp/sp/vietnam/
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Youkiza+Yoji Sakate will have a provocative theatrical encounter with Ibsen’s highest achievement, The Wild Duck.
Vietnam’s best known contemporary woman actor and Japan's nationally designated Edo marionettes will share the stage.
Enhanced by Takayuki Terakado’s miraculous puppet art, Youkiza will present a marvelous performance you have never witnessed before.
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Original script is the Wild Duck by Henrick Ibsen.
In Wild Duck Addiction, a funeral procession carries a coffin of Hedvig, a daughter who killed herself. It is wandering in a forest in search for a burial site. Story is traced by the members of the procession, looking back on the “events which lead to the death of injured creature”; wild creatures, dying by human tyranny such as lead poisoning and hunting while living in nature, and human beings with some kind of damages are contrasted.
Hedvig is a daughter of Hjalmar, a photographer, and his wife Gina. Hjalmar’s father was imprisoned and went down, after he was betrayed by wealthy merchant Werle, who had once been his partner. Gregers, a son of Werle, has come home after fifteen years’ absence to attend a party given by his father. Knowing the secrets about the Ekdals’ past, Gregers unveils the hidden relationship between the two families with his justice calls for “claim of the ideal”.
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Introduction
The Edo Marionette Theatre YOUKIZA proposes a collaboration with the Vietnam Youth Theatre for an intercultural performer-puppet production. Our initiative has arisen from the following circumstances.
In 2014 when the Vietnam Youth Theatre visited Japan through the Japan Foundation Training Program, they observed the rehearsals and performances of the Youkiza. Among the members was Ms Le Khanh, actress and deputy director of the Vietnam Youth Theatre. She was deeply impressed by the fusion of a 380-year old tradition and contemporary theatre in our stage work. Her strong desire for the Vietnam Youth Theatre to have an opportunity to collaborate with the Youkiza in devising a performance together became the inspiration for this proposal.
The proposed production will be a radical adaptation of The Wild Duck, written by Norwegian Henrik Ibsen. We deliberately chose a playwright who was neither Japanese nor Vietnamese.
To “reconstruct” The Wild Duck, we have accumulated three kinds of Asian artistic power―the delicate and abundant expressivity of the traditional Japanese art of Edo marionettes, the fruits of our artistic exchange with the Vietnamese actors, and artistic director Yoji Sakate’s long-standing experience in devising modern Noh plays. Furthermore, Takayuki Terakado’s marionettes will come to life through the application of the long-practiced traditional skills of the Youkiza.
Look forward to the fusion of tradition and modernity, puppets and people and many other features that will bring forth a magical performance you have never witnessed before.
Project Objectives
Through the implosion of two families, Ibsen’s The Wild Duck depicts how “taking away the small lies in daily living leads to taking away happiness.” The universal questions through time and across continents include― what is it to be human? what is justice? what is life? what is family? We desire to bring to the audience’s attention to these philosophical issues.
The Wild Duck Synopsis
Hedvig is a daughter of Hjalmar Ekdal, a photographer, and his wife Gina. In the past, Hjalmar’s father was imprisoned due to wealthy merchant Werle’s machinations. Gregers Werle has come home to attend a dinner given by his father, where he discovers that Gina was his father's mistress before she married, and that his father had brought them together and helped them financially. Gregers considers it his duty to get Hjalmar to see the truth so that he and Gina can live a married life based on truth. Hjalmar asks her whether he is Hedvig's father. Gina replied vaguely, which caused Hjalmar to reject Hedvig as his daughter. Meanwhile Gregers has convinced Hedvig that she can win her father's love back by sacrificing the wild duck, she is deeply attached to. But instead of the wild duck, Hedvig shoots and killed herself.
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Outline
Title Wild Duck Addiction (tentative title)
Cast Le KHANH (the Vietnam Youth Theatre), An Actor from the Vietnam Youth Theatre
Magosaburo YUOKI XII, and Youkiza Puppeteers
Staff Original Play Henrik IBSEN
Adaptation and Direction Yoji SAKATE (Rinkogun Theater Company)
Puppet Art Takayuki TERAKADO
Music and Live Performance Keisuke OHTA
Stage Art Jiro SHIMA
Lights Shigeo SAITO
Sound Takeru SHIMA
Stage Manager Norihiko MORISHITA
Translation Darlene QUYEN
Assistant to the Director Mami YAMADA
Venue Theatre East, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre
==Ticket Information==
- All Seats Reserved: \ 5,500, U-25 (under 25-year-old) \ 2,500, V-ticket (Vietnamese residing in Japan) \ 2,500
Tickets available at the Youkiza TEL 042-322-9750 (10:00~18:00)
==Performance Schedule 16 – 21 March 2016 (6 stages)==
16 March 19:00
17 March 19:00 +
18 March 19:00
19 March 14:00
20 March 14:00 +
21 March 14:00
+ Talkback will be held on 17 and 20 after performance.
No live music performance on 20 March.
