Thoughts on BeruBara
(Warning: this post is nothing but Takarazuka babble)
Ok, after about a week's worth of watching every evening in short bits, we have finally finished watching 'Versailles no Bara' Cosmos Troupe 2001. And whoah. I have to write something about it because my brain is about to overflow...
Act I
I was floored from the very first scenes. After the little 1st years have finished their opening song, we hear loud church bells, intended, presumably, to put us in the right mood for drama set in 18th century France on the brink of revolution. Then the curtain lifts on a pink and gold stage with sparkly lights saying BeruBara, and everyone on stage is dressed in pastel pinks and blues. Ooookay.
Follows a succession of scenes, on the background of an exceedingly ugly drawing of Marie-Antoinette (by the original author, I know, but really, couldn't they find a nicer one?), each more painful than the next:
Fersen (Wao), clutching what is clearly (for the uninitiated) a toy replica of himself, Marie-Antoinette (O-Hana, henceforth known as M-A) looking for all the world like a large strawberry gateau, Oscar (Saeko) with a terrible wig and clearly rather taller than André (Mizu - looking pretty good, to be fair).
Then, heck, why not, costume change! With Fersen and M-A in a lovely red (I do like those costumes), matching each other perfectly (but unfortunately clashing with the rest of the cast, still dressed in pink and a truly noxious turquoise colour...)
Did we somehow skip to the revue while I wasn't looking?
No, it turns out we didn't. Eventually, we are done with the gratuitous BeruBara scenes, and onto the story!
Only the story, being from an 8-(?)volume manga, is not really suited to a 3-hour stage performance, and since they want to cram in every possible dramatic scene they can, there is far too little build-up for one to have any sympathy or understanding for the characters. But I suppose that's what it's like when you watch BeruBara and it can't be helped.
So we see a 14-year-old M-A being sent to Versailles and then fly to some 18 years later, when she's had several children and is in the midst of an illicit relationship with Fersen.
Oscar appears (dressed in blue, with a pastel pink bow. Uh... very manly, Oscar.) to lecture both M-A and Fersen about it - but, although Oscar's the main character (of the original story), we don't get much of an understanding of her, beyond the fact that she's basically noble and self-sacrificing.
The whole first half seems to be about Fersen's relationship with M-A and his eventually having to leave Versailles, at which point M-A, instead of breaking down, becomes aware of her husband's kind heart, forgets all about Fersen and resolves to be a good Queen of France. Although the individual scenes go on for a long time, the whole thing has a rushed feel, and lacks the background setting for us to even care about M-A and Fersen. (The green velvet costume Fersen is wearing in that scene with Count Mercy is worthy of mention though, I feel. Mmmmm... I love green.)
But worse is to come. No sooner has Fersen left than we get catapulted into a rather embarrassing Oscar/André love scene, which comes totally out of the blue, since we (the uninitiated) were given virtually no idea who André was to start with. We have seen very little of Oscar behaving like a man, so seeing her revert to being a woman has practically no impact either. Tall, tall Oscar has to resort to shuffling around on her knees so that she can hang desperately onto André without looking ridiculous.
So Oscar and André get together, yay! And then, two scenes later, he's getting shot! And boy, does it take a lot of shots to kill André. The man is made of iron! He gets at least 12 bullets shot into him and he's still serenading Oscar. (I personally kept waiting for Mizu to topple over the parapet, but I had to remind myself this was not a film with stuntsmen at hand...)
Of course, once André is dead, Oscar follows shortly during the assault on the Bastille prison, having turned coat and joined the revolutionary army. And that deals with those two, whom we don't see again until the Finale.
End of Act I
Act II
After all that heroic drama, Fersen seems highly unimportant. However, we revert back to him in Act II, and his attempt to save M-A from certain death.
Actually, I rather liked Act II. The plot followed a more obvious chain of events, benefiting, I think, from not having to accommodate Oscar and André's storyline as well. In fact, by the end of Act II, I had completely forgotten Oscar and André had been in it at all, and when Mizu appeared in the Finale, I looked at her stupidly and said "Huh? Who was Mizu playing?!" (no joke)
So, after some incomprehensible scuffle with the King of Sweden, involving Fersen being asked to sing a little song (I really need to watch that again to determine what on earth is going on), Fersen gets away from Sweden and runs off to save M-A.
Scene-jump and we're back to the main action in France, with some very nice touching scenes between M-A and Louis XVI, which were somehow more enjoyable for not featuring violent displays of love or bravery.
Anyway, jump to Fersen arriving in Paris to save M-A. It opens with M-A in her cell at the Conciergerie, preparing for her execution, and suddenly the atmosphere changes. She is deathly white and dressed in grey, and the contrast works. Finally, you really, really feel for her. She says goodbye to her friends, then to her old protector Count Mercy, and has just decided that this is the end, when Fersen walks in.
I won't spoil the ending, but I will say that I have rarely been so blown away watching a scene as I was with this. It was shocking and moving and I drank it all in without question. Throughout most of this play, I had never thought that I would ever truly care about M-A, much less about Fersen, but the final scene did for me completely.
Finale
So, what would make an adequate transition from that shocking scene to the dance scenes of the revue? Why, I think we'll switch straight to a load of scantily-clad girls line-dancing in (French) republican colours to the Marseillaise! In characteristic Takarazuka appalling taste... though the dancing was actually pretty good in itself.
The Finale that followed was a mix-up of cool and WTF?!?!?
On the cool side was an energetic otokoyaku dance lead by Mizu and a really cool scene featuring women in flowing white dresses and men in tuxedos with interesting lighting effects and dozens of hanging candles.
On the strange side, well, as it happens... everything with Wao in. Particularly that EXTRAORDINARY duet with Hana. WTF was that about? One moment, they're wandering around very slowly on the stairs, then they appear to be doing stretching exercises, and the next minute Wao is busy groping Hana's chest, with no possible excuse for it - and all this while maintaining completely blank expressions.
Until the end, where they alternate between reaching out longingly and looking as if they might like to murder each other. It was... weird. And not in a good way. I usually adore Wao and Hana dancing, but what happened here...? Oh well, blame the choreographer :)
Anyway, I won't go through every single detail, but another thing I wondered about was what happened to Saeko? She didn't turn up until it was her turn on the staircase! And yet surely, Saeko was effectively 2ic otokoyaku for that show...
The very end was, well, much like any other end, with everyone grinning and waving, so nothing much to say about that.
So, on the whole... well, I got a lot more out of this than I thought I would from the first 5 minutes of it! I'm not sure I would say I like it, nor do I think it is a very good play on its own, since it's so condensed. It's a good thing I know a little about BeruBara or I think I'd have been bored throughout the entire first act. But there were some scenes well worth watching in the second half, I think.
So it's a real mixed bag for me! Maybe, someday, I'll watch it again...
Phew! I think I've got it out of my system... Must go to bed now!
Ok, after about a week's worth of watching every evening in short bits, we have finally finished watching 'Versailles no Bara' Cosmos Troupe 2001. And whoah. I have to write something about it because my brain is about to overflow...
Act I
I was floored from the very first scenes. After the little 1st years have finished their opening song, we hear loud church bells, intended, presumably, to put us in the right mood for drama set in 18th century France on the brink of revolution. Then the curtain lifts on a pink and gold stage with sparkly lights saying BeruBara, and everyone on stage is dressed in pastel pinks and blues. Ooookay.
Follows a succession of scenes, on the background of an exceedingly ugly drawing of Marie-Antoinette (by the original author, I know, but really, couldn't they find a nicer one?), each more painful than the next:
Fersen (Wao), clutching what is clearly (for the uninitiated) a toy replica of himself, Marie-Antoinette (O-Hana, henceforth known as M-A) looking for all the world like a large strawberry gateau, Oscar (Saeko) with a terrible wig and clearly rather taller than André (Mizu - looking pretty good, to be fair).
Then, heck, why not, costume change! With Fersen and M-A in a lovely red (I do like those costumes), matching each other perfectly (but unfortunately clashing with the rest of the cast, still dressed in pink and a truly noxious turquoise colour...)
Did we somehow skip to the revue while I wasn't looking?
No, it turns out we didn't. Eventually, we are done with the gratuitous BeruBara scenes, and onto the story!
Only the story, being from an 8-(?)volume manga, is not really suited to a 3-hour stage performance, and since they want to cram in every possible dramatic scene they can, there is far too little build-up for one to have any sympathy or understanding for the characters. But I suppose that's what it's like when you watch BeruBara and it can't be helped.
So we see a 14-year-old M-A being sent to Versailles and then fly to some 18 years later, when she's had several children and is in the midst of an illicit relationship with Fersen.
Oscar appears (dressed in blue, with a pastel pink bow. Uh... very manly, Oscar.) to lecture both M-A and Fersen about it - but, although Oscar's the main character (of the original story), we don't get much of an understanding of her, beyond the fact that she's basically noble and self-sacrificing.
The whole first half seems to be about Fersen's relationship with M-A and his eventually having to leave Versailles, at which point M-A, instead of breaking down, becomes aware of her husband's kind heart, forgets all about Fersen and resolves to be a good Queen of France. Although the individual scenes go on for a long time, the whole thing has a rushed feel, and lacks the background setting for us to even care about M-A and Fersen. (The green velvet costume Fersen is wearing in that scene with Count Mercy is worthy of mention though, I feel. Mmmmm... I love green.)
But worse is to come. No sooner has Fersen left than we get catapulted into a rather embarrassing Oscar/André love scene, which comes totally out of the blue, since we (the uninitiated) were given virtually no idea who André was to start with. We have seen very little of Oscar behaving like a man, so seeing her revert to being a woman has practically no impact either. Tall, tall Oscar has to resort to shuffling around on her knees so that she can hang desperately onto André without looking ridiculous.
So Oscar and André get together, yay! And then, two scenes later, he's getting shot! And boy, does it take a lot of shots to kill André. The man is made of iron! He gets at least 12 bullets shot into him and he's still serenading Oscar. (I personally kept waiting for Mizu to topple over the parapet, but I had to remind myself this was not a film with stuntsmen at hand...)
Of course, once André is dead, Oscar follows shortly during the assault on the Bastille prison, having turned coat and joined the revolutionary army. And that deals with those two, whom we don't see again until the Finale.
End of Act I
Act II
After all that heroic drama, Fersen seems highly unimportant. However, we revert back to him in Act II, and his attempt to save M-A from certain death.
Actually, I rather liked Act II. The plot followed a more obvious chain of events, benefiting, I think, from not having to accommodate Oscar and André's storyline as well. In fact, by the end of Act II, I had completely forgotten Oscar and André had been in it at all, and when Mizu appeared in the Finale, I looked at her stupidly and said "Huh? Who was Mizu playing?!" (no joke)
So, after some incomprehensible scuffle with the King of Sweden, involving Fersen being asked to sing a little song (I really need to watch that again to determine what on earth is going on), Fersen gets away from Sweden and runs off to save M-A.
Scene-jump and we're back to the main action in France, with some very nice touching scenes between M-A and Louis XVI, which were somehow more enjoyable for not featuring violent displays of love or bravery.
Anyway, jump to Fersen arriving in Paris to save M-A. It opens with M-A in her cell at the Conciergerie, preparing for her execution, and suddenly the atmosphere changes. She is deathly white and dressed in grey, and the contrast works. Finally, you really, really feel for her. She says goodbye to her friends, then to her old protector Count Mercy, and has just decided that this is the end, when Fersen walks in.
I won't spoil the ending, but I will say that I have rarely been so blown away watching a scene as I was with this. It was shocking and moving and I drank it all in without question. Throughout most of this play, I had never thought that I would ever truly care about M-A, much less about Fersen, but the final scene did for me completely.
Finale
So, what would make an adequate transition from that shocking scene to the dance scenes of the revue? Why, I think we'll switch straight to a load of scantily-clad girls line-dancing in (French) republican colours to the Marseillaise! In characteristic Takarazuka appalling taste... though the dancing was actually pretty good in itself.
The Finale that followed was a mix-up of cool and WTF?!?!?
On the cool side was an energetic otokoyaku dance lead by Mizu and a really cool scene featuring women in flowing white dresses and men in tuxedos with interesting lighting effects and dozens of hanging candles.
On the strange side, well, as it happens... everything with Wao in. Particularly that EXTRAORDINARY duet with Hana. WTF was that about? One moment, they're wandering around very slowly on the stairs, then they appear to be doing stretching exercises, and the next minute Wao is busy groping Hana's chest, with no possible excuse for it - and all this while maintaining completely blank expressions.
Until the end, where they alternate between reaching out longingly and looking as if they might like to murder each other. It was... weird. And not in a good way. I usually adore Wao and Hana dancing, but what happened here...? Oh well, blame the choreographer :)
Anyway, I won't go through every single detail, but another thing I wondered about was what happened to Saeko? She didn't turn up until it was her turn on the staircase! And yet surely, Saeko was effectively 2ic otokoyaku for that show...
The very end was, well, much like any other end, with everyone grinning and waving, so nothing much to say about that.
So, on the whole... well, I got a lot more out of this than I thought I would from the first 5 minutes of it! I'm not sure I would say I like it, nor do I think it is a very good play on its own, since it's so condensed. It's a good thing I know a little about BeruBara or I think I'd have been bored throughout the entire first act. But there were some scenes well worth watching in the second half, I think.
So it's a real mixed bag for me! Maybe, someday, I'll watch it again...
Phew! I think I've got it out of my system... Must go to bed now!