Theatre
Sexual Practices of the Japanese
BY Gord McLaughlin May 08, 2008 12:05
Featuring Manami Hara, Maiko Bae Yamamoto, Raugi Yu. Directed by James Long, Maiko Bae Yamamoto. Written by Hiro Kanagawa, Manami Hara, James Long, Maiko Bae Yamamoto. Produced by Theatre Replacement. To May 18. Tue-Sat 8pm; Sun 2pm. Factory Theatre Mainspace, 125 Bathurst. 416-504-9971. www.factorytheatre.ca.
It’s all here: the masturbators who grope girls on a packed subway; subservient women and overbearing men; a love of gadgets; corporate loyalty; and a baseball fetish that just won’t quit. This show wittily trades on stereotypes as it illustrates Japanese sexual mores, wisely avoiding the political and making all its points through emotion.
A Japanese electronics firm is trying to build a better sex toy. So begins the loose arc of events (not really a plot) that slowly sneaks up on you. At first comically disarming, the show gathers emotional power as the rifts between the sexes are given theatrical and poetic life.
There are many handprints on all aspects of this production — two directors, four writers, four set designers. But they’ve achieved an aesthetic unity that propels the 90-minute show to a mostly satisfying conclusion. (I could quibble about the ending.) The effective set is mostly comprised of men’s suits that hang empty across the stage. The gorgeous lighting design raises the flash of passing subway trains into a symbol of existential ache.
This is the Vancouver-born show’s fourth production, so the talented cast is well oiled, metaphorically at least. On the very few occasions where sex is actually suggested or performed, it’s neither overblown nor underplayed. Regardless of how the Japanese are in bed, on stage in this production they’re all about artistry and restraint.
625 Church St, 6th Floor, Toronto M4Y 2G1
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