“Dream Play” Kaiji Moriyama x Reo Tamaki

Strindberg, a Swedish playwright, lived a turbulent life with a vast amount of knowledge and a rebellious spirit. ``Dream Play'', which he wrote freely without any intention of performing it, will be directed by Akira Shirai, who has been appointed artistic director of KAAT (Kanagawa Arts Theater) since April. The story depicts the hardships and joys of human life through the story of a god's daughter who descends into the human world and experiences various experiences while flying through time and space. This play is attracting attention for its star-studded cast, including Akari Hayami, Kei Tanaka, and Keishi Nagatsuka (who also wrote the screenplay), as well as Kaiji Moriyama, who is in charge of the choreography and performs, and his role as Nobutada Oda from the taiga drama Sanada Maru. We spoke to Reo Tamaki.

Interview&Text: Kyoko Tokunaga Photo(Portrait): Masamasa Nishino

One answer is that dreams are ``depictions of humans.''

── I personally really like the worldview of this play, but it's quite difficult to explain. I think it must be difficult for everyone who is being interviewed like this (lol).

Moriyama : That's right. We are exactly the same, we like the world view, but the explanation is... (lol).

At Tamaki practice, we are currently searching for ways to give form to this ``difficulty of explanation.''

── There are two ways to draw humans: one is to capture the slightest changes in an individual's breathing and facial expressions from a close distance, and the other is to capture changes in the movements of a group from a distance.This work uses the latter method, and is , it feels like the point of view can be moved freely. I thought I was watching it from far up in the sky, then it suddenly descended into my house and then ran up the mountain again.

Moriyama : This is true in Japan, and it is a play that is not performed very often (even overseas). Moreover, Mr. Shirai's direction uses a small number of directors to portray many characters, so instead of each person playing a single role, each of us plays a variety of roles. That's why my role changes from moment to moment, from scene to scene. That boundary is still there...

Tamaki : Yes, it's like figuring out how to balance the role you've been playing with the role you're going to play before (lol).

Moriyama : I'm sure the audience watching will be confused as well. It's normal to be confused. Reo-kun has been playing a young officer for a long time, and at one point he is replaced with Hajime Yamazaki, who plays an older officer, but soon after the switch, he appears in a different role (lol).

Tamaki : Haha, I'm playing this while thinking it's a mystery.

Even in Moriyama , I thought it would be a good idea to create something that the customers could enjoy.

Tamaki : That's right. I'm sure there will be times when you watch it and think, "Who is this person? What is he doing?" When this happens, you don't end up complaining, "I don't understand," but if you put it into words, it's a simple way to say it,
I want it to be something like, ``I don't understand, but it's kind of interesting,'' and that feeling of fun.

Moriyama It may sound like an escape route, but it's a ``dream play.'' If it's a dream, anything can happen, right? It's like when you think your little sister appears, she suddenly turns into someone you've never met, or the scene suddenly skips. In that sense, it is truly a ``dream play,'' and when you think about what a dream is, I think this play will give you the answer that, after all, it is a depiction of human beings. But.

── It's true that there is a feeling of floating in a dream, but there are also many definitional stories such as ``Humans are sad beings'' and ``Life is full of hardships.'' That being said, it's not that serious. I felt that the balance between lightness and weight was what made this work so special.

Moriyama: That's right. During rehearsals, I realized that even when the lines ``sad'' and ``tough'' come up, they don't mean exactly what they mean. Don't you think this isn't a sad story at all?

I will do Tamaki , I will do it very much! The problems that come up are often personal matters, such as love or marriage.

Moriyama : I don't know what to say, but there are a lot of petty complaints (lol). But humans sometimes dare to say pessimistic words to convince themselves, and even when Agnes, played by Hayami, cries out in a serious tone, ``Humans are so stupid,'' it's actually very familiar to us. It may be about a certain problem. If you look at it from the other side, even though it may seem tragic, it actually seems like it can be solved...

There are so many things in life, right?

Moriyama : That's the kind of play it is (laughs). Theater is a genre in which it is relatively easy to explore social issues and historical issues, and with such themes, you can really make the point that ``human beings are stupid,'' but this work does not do that. Humans are foolish and pitiful beings who get into trouble over small things, but on the contrary, they affirm that they are alive. That kind of thing is depicted in a nice, fluffy, dream-like way.
In that sense, as Mr. Shirai and Mr. Nagatsuka said, it is a work that is a celebration of humanity.

── Agnes, the daughter of God, may be more human than anyone else. This is Hayami-san's first time on stage.

Even though it's Moriyama , he's been on stage a lot, and he's very dignified.

Tamaki : I'm playing a role where I spend a lot of time with Agnes, but I don't know what it feels like to be in front of Akari-chan, but for me, it doesn't feel like I'm working with someone who's acting for the first time. is. I'm very relaxed and innocent in the rehearsal room, and I don't have any worries about my performance.

Moriyama : One of the things we often talk about at rehearsals is that we wanted to imagine Agnes experiencing the human world as if she were running through it like a white horse. I think it's very useful in that sense.
── It is said that Strindberg wrote this play freely without any idea of how it would be performed, but in fact, the notes are like a magical instruction manual (lol).

Photo: From the public rehearsal of “Dream Play”

Tamaki: It says, ``You can do it!'' (laughs). It simply says, ``Spirits dance.''

Mr. Moriyama Shirai simply says, ``Right now, spirits are dancing in the sky...'' (lol). I'm also in the rehearsal room as a choreographer, so I'm thinking about how the dancer team should move and what they should express, and it's like, ``Up in the air...'' (lol). I'm conscious of the height and have pole dancers join in, but even poles can't go that high, and once you climb up you have to come down, and you can't fly. I'm struggling with writing while worrying. However, when dance appears in a play, it tends to become an afterthought, so my challenge this time is to prevent that from happening. I want to be able to successfully mix the (theatrical) meaning of spirits flying in the sky with the dance expression.

I want this work to erase the boundaries between dance and acting.

── Do the actors also dance?

Tamaki is dancing.

Especially Reo Moriyama.

Tamaki : I've been able to dance in a variety of ways, thankfully.

Moriyama is helping me.

Tamaki : I'm glad to have you here. I'm from the generation that watched Shirai-san and Nagatsuka-san's performances as well as Kaiji-san's dances from the audience seats, so it's an honor just to be able to be involved in the same work together, but to be able to choreograph them directly. I'm glad I've been dancing for a while now (lol).

Moriyama also did swimming, right?

I was involved in Tamaki swimming and track and field.

Because he is Moriyama , his body is very strong. I can rely on you.

Tamaki : No, I'm scared, but I'll do my best.

── Does that mean that the actors also dance? Does the dancers also act?

Moriyama : Yes. Originally, what Mr. Shirai and I wanted to do with this work was to eliminate, or rather blur, the line between the dance part and the acting part, which had tended to be separated in the past. Similar to the problem that I and Reo-kun talked about at the beginning of how to bridge the transition between roles, we want to bridge the gap between dancing and acting. That's why I want to create time for actors to express themselves physically and dancers to express themselves verbally. All the dancers are given a few lines, and some of them have quite a lot of lines, so I say let's take on the challenge.

Tamaki: Can I ask Kaiji-san something? I've always been curious about this, but the choreography is decided after a certain amount of discussion with Mr. Shirai. But you were able to do it to a certain extent from the beginning of the rehearsals, right? I was really interested in where that dance came from. There is a script, we have a meeting, and the dancers move in the rehearsal room to create the choreography. From my point of view, this series of events is very strange.

No matter how many meetings you have with Shirai Moriyama in advance, you will never know how to create a play until you start rehearsals. In such a case, I'll just go ahead and have a little bit of stock (of movement). At the same time, I also wanted to understand the dancers. Some people don't fully grasp how much they can actually dance or what they're good at. So, the first step is to combine the director's taste with the dancers' abilities. Also, to be honest, I'm the type of person who takes a lot of time to choreograph. In fact, I want to spend several days working on one scene. But this time I can't do that, so I guess there are some things that lead me by chance, like picking up things that I found good after actually trying them out. I don't know the details myself (lol). For example, when you perform a certain movement, the next movement may occur naturally, and although I have a big idea (for this work), there are times when the dancers have to move on a slope due to changeovers. When it comes out, unexpected choreography is born out of those specific constraints.

Tamaki : Ah, that's certainly true.

Moriyama (moving the conversion set) It's heavy so a man has to do it. The situation arises. Then, since just being a dancer isn't enough, she says, ``Sorry, Reo-kun, please.'' Then you think, ``Yeah, I don't want to do it because I'm just asking other people to do it, but I guess I'll do it too'' (lol). Then, when I decided to dance on the floor with my moving body, I suddenly had a flash of the possibility of creating landscapes through dance. To put it coolly, it feels like the choreography has come down.

Oh Tamaki !

Moriyama :Practically speaking, it just happened by chance. I think about it a lot in my head beforehand, but in the end it doesn't go exactly as planned, and I've never tried it before (lol). I hope you can have fun doing that. Mr. Shirai's direction also goes something like, ``If you move it another 10 centimeters, it will fit perfectly and it will feel good, and it will look beautiful,'' but he deliberately left it alone and said, ``That difference is important, that subtle difference is what's good.'' That's how it feels (lol). If everything goes according to calculations with a precise count like that, I hope to be able to choreograph the choreography well while leaving room for what is missing. That's why I think it's important, and what's interesting about this project, that we don't have separate rehearsal rooms for dance and acting, and that they are done at the same time in the same place, although it takes time.

Thank you Tamaki , I was very satisfied.

── While being conscious of movement at high altitudes, the story of how choreography is born from changes in the set is similar to the structure of this work, which is somewhat like a dream world, but is still connected to the roots of human life. I felt like we were in sync. I'm looking forward to the actual performance.

Photo: From the public rehearsal of “Dream Play”