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Yaneura, or Attic, is set in a tiny, slanted, attic-like box -- a product that is sold on the internet and bought by people who wish to confine themselves in small enclosed spaces. In this play by the Rinko-Gun Theater Company, presented at the Japan Society, a large ensemble of young actors presents 23 different scenes, all taking place in an Attic. Taken as a whole, the scenes present a jigsaw portrait of one layer of the modern Japanese psyche -- a layer that plummets and surfaces in a wide variety of characters. At the outset, a businessman visits the Attic that was the last living space of his younger brother, a university student who committed suicide within its confines. As a commercial product, the Attics have become wildly popular, yet the company that manufactures them remains a secret. The older brother begins a quest to find out who manufactures these boxes. In subsequent scenes, a junior high school girl who has locked herself in an Attic gets a visit from a classmate. Two detectives, sendups of characters from a campy Japanese detective movie, take refuge in an abandoned Attic on the street during a stakeout. Two samurai assassins use an Attic to spy on a suspected traitor within their organization. A group of movie fanatics who only know each other from an online chatroom meet for the first time when they converge on the Attic inhabited by one of their members -- and find him dead inside. A young couple uses an Attic for their erotic encounters. A schoolgirl compares life in an Attic to the life of Anne Frank. "Anne Frank had freedom when she wrote," the girl says. "What do I have?" A news anchorwoman reports on the phenomenon of Attics. A woman hires a detective to check on her son who has locked himself inside an Attic for years -- and may have kidnapped a young girl. Two mountain climbers find refuge in an Attic during a blizzard, and encounter a strange snow ghost. The Attic Hunter -- a shadowy, "legendary" figure whose graffiti image enlarged on the walls of an Attic brings the character to life -- talks with a psychotic kidnaper. A mother visits her grown son who has taken to living in an Attic in a bedroom of their home. A teacher visits her withdrawn student in an Attic and confesses she wishes she could withdraw into an Attic. Three homeless people live inside an Attic, to the dismay of the local townspeople who worry about property values. Two Japanese soldiers find refuge inside an Attic during a bombing attack in the Gulf War. These scenes unfold at a good pace, providing visual entertainment: each time the lights go down and then come up again, a new configuration of people inhabits the seemingly limitless Attic. A small door requires people entering or departing to go on hands and knees; a "skylight" allows for entrances and exits from above, and a trapdoor permits subterranean comings and goings. There are comic moments, such as when the samurai assassins have difficulty pulling out their swords within the Attic's confines. There are entertaining theatrical effects such as when the protesting townspeople throw the Attic and its homeless people into the river, or when the older brother rides a dreamlike Attic elevator into another mysterious world. The mystery of the origin of the Attic is solved in the end when the older brother arrives at the workshop of the Attic manufacturer. And at that moment, the stage wings fall away to reveal an Attic under construction in a craftsman's workshop. Altogether, there is much to enjoy in this production. A large ensemble of young Japanese actors does an admirable job, with obvious enthusiasm for their craft. Along the way they take us on an entertaining tour through strange and curious corners of the modern psyche, including obsessions with stuffed animals, a love of detective, samurai and war films, addictions to fast food, the moral malaise of youth who see nothing very interesting lying ahead, and the desires of many people to simply withdraw. In some ways, these Attic-dwellers are 21st-century counterparts of Herman Melville's 19th-century character, Bartleby, the man who turned his face to the wall and simply said, "I would prefer not to." However, our modern "would prefer not-to-ers" withdraw into tiny private spheres, yet communicate on the internet, expect to be waited on by concerned family members, entrap other people with them, commit acts of violence, or simply have nowhere else to go. In the end, we all live in Attics, whether we inhabit tiny urban apartments, suburban or rural boxes. Even those who may live in palatial settings can feel the walls close in upon them. "I could be bounded in a nutshell and consider myself a King of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams," confided Hamlet. Indeed, the four walls of our retreat are not enough to keep the nightmare of the world at bay. Still, many would try. Countless others count themselves lucky to merely to have a roof over their heads. "Yaneura" Copyright © 2005 by theater2k.com. All rights reserved. |
