Samishii Magunetto review
I bought both versions of 淋しいマグネット (Samishii Magunetto), and they came just 2 days after the release date. I watched Reds right away, rereading "Our Bad Magnet" by Douglas Maxwell as I went. Yesterday, I finally had time to watch the Blues performance and watch the Reds (this time with companionship, thanks to Yami) all the way through. There aren't a lot of reviews in English, so if you are trying to decide if you also want to buy (you do, you do!), maybe I can help.
You may ask, what's this business with Reds and Blues? It refers to the doublecasting of the roles. Two actors were cast for each role. The more seasoned actors are all from Watanabe Entertainment's D-BOYS acting troupe. The younger actors include 2 D-BOYS and 2 from their junior acting troupe, D2. They performed together in 4 teams, Red, Blue, Purple, and White. Red includes all the more seasoned actors, Blue all the younger men.
First performed in Glasgow in 2000, "Our Bad Magnet" is set in Girvan, a small Scottish town. Three nine year olds, Frazier, Alan, and Paul, befriend a new classmate, a markedly strange and unsmiling boy named Gordon, who everyone calls Giggles. What Giggles lacks in social skills, he more than makes up for with his story telling ability. Giggles' shadow looms over the three local boys, whether they remained in Girvan or moved away. In 淋しいマグネット, not only has the name been changed to "Lonely Magnet", the character names have been changed to Japanese ones, and the setting to a Japanese town.
Our Bad Magnet Lonely Magnet Casts
Characters Characters Reds Blues
Alan Shion Tomo Yanagishita Jinnai Sho
Frazier Gonzo Endo Yuya Usui Masahiro
Paul Toru Araki Hirofumi Hashimoto Taito
Giggles Ruben Seto Koji Akutsu Shintaro
(Whites: Tomo, Usui, Hashimoto, Seto. Purples: Jinnai, Endo, Araki, Akutsu.)
This is one of those plays whose interpretation is as much in the hands of the director and actors as the playwright. I commend Maxwell for allowing performance companies freedom to change the play as needed for their locales, instead of directly translating it word for word.
[Spoiler (click to open)]This play deals with two of Japan's serious social problems (bullying and suicide) and I suspect the impact would not have been as great if the casts had played Scottish boys eating sausage rolls.That freedom of interpretation is something Maxwell built into the very framework of the story, and, in fact, the story can't be told without ambiguity. The ambiguity of shared experience resonates throughout this play. Not only do the characters disagree about what happened at the central event of their youths, the interpret the meaning of their shared experiences in vastly different ways, and mark its importance in ways just as varied. The only certainty is that they have found themselves unable to escape Ruben, the one character most emphatically left in the past.
The two casts present very different pictures of what happened, of what is happening. Blues local boys (Jinnai, Usui, Hashimoto) act very much as if they had grown up with each other. The story of their relationship, and how it becomes strained, is the foremost theme of the Blues interpretation. Ruben, as played by Akutsu, is a quiet, angry boy who becomes an even angrier teenager. While you can feel sorry for him in the context of his life, you can also sympathize with the desire of the other boys to push him away.
Reds, on the other hand, is the story of Ruben even when Ruben isn't there. This is largely due to Seto playing Ruben not as angry, but as broken, someone able to only tenuously hold to reality and society. Akutsu's angry Ruben pushes you away, while Seto's destroyed Ruben fills you with both fear and sympathy, pulling you into the abyss with him. Accordingly, the cast around him reacts as if they are never quite certain what might happen with him. Gonzo, as played by Endo, in particular seems to feel he should take responsibility for Ruben. Tomo's Shion is in awe of Ruben, but more desperately wants to please Frazier and Toru, connecting to the through Ruben. And in Toru, Araki shows someone who strives to control and profit from every situation, but in doing so finds himself revolving around Ruben.
Not surprisingly, I prefer the Reds version. Seto is my favorite young Japanese actor for a reason, and he amply demonstrates it with his performance in Samishii Magunetto. This is also the last stage performance by Endo as a D-BOY, and what a great performance it was! In his face, it is easy to see Gonzo's collapse of hope and anger at his shattered delusions. But if you like the Blues cast, or think you'd be more interested in the way they played the characters, you will certainly be satisfied with that choice. I know I will continue to watch both of them.
Did you know:
In the Garden in the Sky story, the role of the butcher who instigates the destruction is played by Shion.
[Foreshadowing this event! (spoiler)]Shion plays this role again in real life when he tells Ruben he is no longer part of the band.As the flowers stop falling from the sky, Ruben says that one seed fell between the stones of the pavement. "Will it grow? I don't know."
When Gonzo and Ruben enter the school after hours, they pledge eternal friendship for each other. Ruben promises that, if he dies, he will haunt Gonzo, eternally his friend. Gonzo promises to die saving Ruben.
In the Bad Magnet story, the D-Stage production has Ruben wearing a variation of the Magnets' jackets and hats.[Read this to understand what is happening in Ruben's Magnet story]The story is about exiled magnets who are unable to be close to each other. The one in love comes up with a plan to destroy his magnetism so that he can get close to his love. When he (now portrayed by Ruben) throws himself off the cliff in the story, he proclaims, "I'm a bad magnet and soon I'll be close again!"
[Read this for after they are 29.]When they are teens, Gonzo and Toru tell each other that they have each boffed Shion's girlfriend. Gonzo was really only bragging, but Toru not only did it, he continues his affair with her even after he moves away. This will be a large part of their argument later, as it increases Gonzo's feelings of betrayal and disillusion. Shion, not knowing this, tells them that the girlfriend, now his wife, is pregnant, depressed, and won't have anything to do with him. Gonzo dares Toru to tell the truth to Shion, but he refuses, talking about Ruben instead.