( interview junya, shougo, yuuki for baby-san - livedoor news october 30th 2015 )

[devilism]

Stage play 「 Baby-san ~ Or About That Funny Circus Troupe 」 - an interview with Ikeda Junya, Suzuki Shougo and Izawa Yuuki who appear in it


Ikeda Junya, Suzuki Shougo and Izawa Yuuki, who appeared together in the musical Hakuouki, will be standing on the same stage once more this autumn. The play with the unique title Baby-san ~ Or About That Funny Circus Troupe was written by the genius Nakajima Ramo, who still has many fans even though he passed away over ten years ago. In regards to the charm of the story with a subject the three of them haven't experienced the likes of until now, I was able to talk with them about their true selves, which they have seen often from each other because of their friendship.

In the play you guys are a soldier, an orphan boy and an animal tamer?

What did you feel when it was decided you'd be starring in this work?

Suzuki: "Ah, again together with Junya!" (laughs) Since it's already the third time we've been in the same play just this year alone, that was the first thing that came to mind.
Ikeda: I couldn't imagine I would be doing stuff together with the same actor thrice in one year. Moreover, if I'd combine all the times with Shou-chan (Suzuki) until now, we have been co-starring nine times.
Izawa: Since Hakuouki in January was the first time I co-starred with these two, it's now the second time we're together in the same play.
Suzuki: I wonder if I didn't have this feeling before. I feel like I had a hunch way earlier.
Izawa: Since the three of us shared a dressing room the first time we co-starred, the time we spent together somehow feels longer. So that's why I was honestly glad that I could be in the same play as those two again.

Ikeda-san was very surprised when it was decided he'd be in the play, right?

Ikeda: I was surprised, or maybe I should even say I couldn't believe it. I liked Nakajima Ramo-san's things for a long time, so I felt great joy that I could appear in one of that person's plays. And because I've also been wanting to do something together with the director G2-san as an actor one day, I felt double the joy.

Moreover, you're playing the lead part.

Ikeda: It's like a dream to play the lead part. I thought "No way?! My wish is coming true this quickly?" I have to do my best, so my fighting spirit set in.

The setting of this play is Manchuria during the way. With the atmosphere getting tense in society, a circus troupe visits the troops to entertain them.. in that sort of story, what kind of role do you three play?

Ikeda: I'm a soldier called second lieutenant Utsumi, who has the inspect the circus troupe's programme beforehand to see if it's appropriate in regards to the war, it's a role similar to being an on-site supervisor. As a soldier from that time, he's someone who lives by surpressing himself.
Suzuki: The name of my role is unknown. (laughs) An orphan who has lost both of his parents during an incident in that setting, it's a 11 to 12 year old boy who's wandered around China by himself before being picked up by the circus troupe. Everyone calls him "Bozu".
Izawa: A member of that circus troupe, my role is Zou-san who's a wild animal tamer, originally just for elephants. He also serves as the circus' ringleader. Although I've left out a little, he's a character that can't be disliked.

Is there a conflict between Ikeda-san's soldier role and Suzuki-san and Izawa-san's roles in the circus troupe?

Ikeda: No, instead Utsumi gradually realises his true feelings as he gets in contact with the circus troupe. Although he gave an order at the beginning like "It's inexcusable to use the language of the enemy. Call it "circus troupe" instead of circus troupe." (note: in general, the word circus (サーカス) is written in katakana, so in english, in the article. but since they were fighting america during the war, he insists they use the japanese kanji for circus instead (曲馬).)
Izawa: That conversation is funny, isn't it.
Ikeda: Because he covers up his feelings as a soldier, he's always conflicted. I wondered how to express the subtleties of Utsumi's feelings that don't show up on the outside. Although it was difficult, I wanted to act it out since it felt important to me.


So it's cowardice to be opposite to the role until the end

Suzuki-san, Izawa-san, are there any parts of your roles this time that feel difficult to you too?

Izawa: In my case, it's the circus part. Because acrobatics like doing tricks with a parasol or juggling bean bags are different from the usual body movement like dancing I've dealt with until now. Since there's many different kinds in this play, I wanted to try and master them all from the beginning.
Suzuki: At this point I couldn't grasp even 1 millimeter of the role. (strained laugh) Although I've managed to understand it with my head that I'm playing a boy in his early teens as a 26 year old, and moreover an orphan in that severe period, it still hasn't been transmitted to my body...
Izawa: Is how you move your body different from what you want to do? That's also what I'm experiencing.
Ikeda: Really? But isn't Izawa an actor with a perfect series?

What does "perfect series" mean..?

Ikeda: He can sing songs, he can dance too, his acting is good.. it seems he doesn't have to worry about whatever role he's given, because he's a skillful actor in a good way. I'm jealous as a fellow actor. "Someday you'll run into something that's a challenge for you and cry!" That's what I secretly think. (laughs)
Izawa: I always already run into challenges!
Suzuki: It's different, it's different. It's not on the level where you have to worry about it. Because when it's me or Junya, our private lives start to collapse because of it. (laughs)

Do the roles you play influence your private life?

Ikeda: I'm not the kind of actor that gets possessed by their role, that's what they call it. But when I'm thinking about a role, it keeps going round and round in my head, there's the sort of feeling that it won't let go of me.
Suzuki: That's right. I think I've gradually been getting closer to being an animal. (laughs)

Living by instincts, something like that..?

Suzuki: As a human, you can't live without adapting to your surroundings. For example, when you're lying in bed, you can think about what you will be 10 years into the future, or when it's about the person you like, you can fret about what you can do so you can get along well. I think that's a very painful thing.

That's right.

Suzuki: But when I'm just thinking about my role when I'm working on a play, I don't have to be worried about Suzuki Shougo's personal life. I can forget about myself as a human being, and although it's a state close to being an animal, I think it's a good state for me to be in when I'm doing my job.



I see... Then, from Izawa-san's point of view, what sort of actors are Ikeda-san and Suzuki-san?

Izawa: I think you can also see it from what we've talked about thus far, but those two are very stoic when it comes to a play. Since everyone was around the same age when we first co-starred in a play, it was very congenial, but from everyone I was close to, those two especially gave off a sense of loneliness.

A sense of loneliness..?

Izawa: For example, folding their arms as they were standing at the sides behind the stages during the performance, with their eyes closed and mumbling their lines.
Ikeda: Huh, I was saying that too?
Izawa: You did. (laughs) Although Shougo-kun was particularly amazing when it came to that.
Suzuki: In my case, I'm just really scared that I'll forget my lines. Basically, I'm the type that can't pass a stone bridge without tapping it. (laughs)

(note: what shougo is talking about is a japanese proverb, it means being extremely careful since you're basically tapping the stone bridge to make sure there aren't any weak spots.)


The escalation between bullying and being the straight man?!

Do you guys ever have fun together during your time off?

Ikeda: Often with Shou-chan.
Suzuki: We go for a drink, or we go to the hot springs.
Ikeda: When I spontaneously send an email saying "today I'm off," I'll get an answer like "sorry, I was asleep" from Shou-chan, and I say "then meet me in an hour." There's many times when it goes like that.

As expected, you two have had a long friendship.

Ikeda: But we also went to eat out together with Izawa before, right?
Izawa: We were in the middle of working on a play. It wasn't completely part of our time off...
Ikeda: But before we did this play, you were still a guy we had co-starred with only once. (laughs) But I'm just saying that I usually don't really exchange contact information, but among all of people I told "nice to meet you" to during that last play, Izawa was the only one I did exchange contact info with.
Izawa: (suddenly smiling) Really?

Which one of you said "let's exchange contact information" first back then?

Izawa: That was me.
Ikeda: And I refused at first. (laughs) In the end he asked about 3 times. When I said "no way" Izawa took it as a joke and started playing the straight man and started quipping back, so I told him since it had already gotten bothersome! (laughs)
Izawa: Was it like that?!
Ikeda: I lied. (laughs) But although I refused the first time, he wasn't discouraged to try it a second and third time, so it would have been rude.

It's since Izawa-san has a friendly personality, right?

Suzuki: He always gets super close.
Izawa: Yeah, I admit I have a lot of skinship.. (laughs)
Ikeda: I think it surely is a good way to make you get along with people well.
Suzuki: That's Izawa's way of making a living...
Izawa: You two are always bullying me like this!

Looking at you right after this, I get the pleasant feeling that you get along well. (laughs) It seems that it's easy to tease Izawa-san.

Ikeda: I think that's Izawa's personality. Since I was born in Osaka and grew up there, the whole thing with the person being picked on and the straight man was a way of showing affection. But in Tokyo people are more serious, or maybe I should say they take these things more intensely.

Indeed, just like people are surprised by Osaka's nori, some people might get their feelings hurt by something like that. (laughs)

Ikeda: But since in his case he gives very amusing reactions, I can show my Osakan spirit. Because Izawa won't get his feelings hurt from the things we say.
Izawa: .. in the beginning I did get my feelings hurt. (laughs)
Suzuki: (laughing loudly) You don't get your feelings hurt since you built up a very strong resistance to it.
Ikeda: So I also have to escalate the intensity of the tsukkomi. (laughs)
Izawa: Stop. I'm pretty.. well, I'll be alright! (laughs)
Ikeda: This kind of return is really perfect. Izawa really is great!


What is Baby-san?

Returning to the topic of the play, can you tell us about the highlights?

Ikeda: Although there are a lot of points like "this scene is great" or "here the course of events are really unusual" since it's such a popular script, in the case of Baby-san, the feelings are moving really loosely along just one route. It's a play where they only arrive at the end after a struggle. It's interesting from the beginning to the end, it can't be overlooked.
Izawa: We're still in the middle of practice.
Suzuki: Like I said before, I still can't quite see the end of forming my role. (laughs) Speaking from my experiences up until now, I think it'll end up unexpected.
Ikeda: The script and the way of directing are very interesting. So I think you'll understand once you come to the theatre, that's the only thing I can say. (laughs)

Although it's a different topic than the main points of this story, is it right that Suzuki-san has to ride on a unicycle in this play?

Suzuki: That's right. Bozu, an orphan with nowhere to go, was told, "you can join the circus troupe if you can ride a unicycle within one week," so he desperately started to practice. In other words, it's a documentary of me trying to master riding a unicycle. (laughs)
Ikeda: At this point you still can't do it, huh.
Suzuki: Well, considering I couldn't even sit on it in the beginning, I've gotten a lot better. I didn't think that riding a unicycle would be this hard...

You must have wanted to practice during those precious free minutes in the downtime between taking pictures today, right?

Suzuki: Since I need to be able to do it. People who come to see the stage play might see the documentary the feelings of Suzuki Shougo learning to ride a unicycle behind the role of Bozu. I'd be glad if I could give everyone the feeling of being impressed by the sports.
Izawa: We'll be impressed for sure too.

As a wild animal tamer Izawa-san will be handling elephants and bears, I was wondering how such big animals would appear on stage.

Izawa: Since the director G2-san said that he wanted to make something that's never been seen before, please look forward to it! Also, even though the "Baby-san" from the title is a mysterious animal that I've picked up from the wastelands, the production itself is also amazing.
Ikeda: That's exactly the thing that's never been seen before!

Since some people say that Baby-san is a tiger and others say it's a rabbit, is the animal's appearance different depending on the beholder?

Ikeda: Yes. Its form always changes, because Baby-san is a being that reflects the mind of the beholder. Although I wondered how they could do it in a believable way, when practice started, I thought "ah, you can show it like this."
Izawa: I was also impressed!
Suzuki: But isn't it likely that the Baby-san that was there during practice is still a work in progress?

The efforts to make it a better stage play are still going on.

Ikeda: I'm still in the process of growing better, Baby-san too.
Izawa: But it's for sure that the things we have seen are things that have not been seen yet, right? I wonder if it isn't that among the generation of our fans, there aren't many people who have seen G2-san or Nakajimo Ramo-san's work.
Ikeda: You could say that.
Izawa: So you could discover a whole new side to stage plays through this work, like "so there's this kind of world view too" or "so there's these kind of plays too." I'd be glad if people got to like stage plays more like this!

Stage plays are raw materials. After all, if you don't see it in the theatre, it isn't transmitted.

Suzuki: For example, even though I think it's practically the same if you watch the DVD for dramas and movies, you can't experience the atmosphere if you don't go to the theatre if it comes to stage plays. So it isn't an exaggeration to say there's not the same stage play even once in a lifetime.
Ikeda: I think the audience also shapes a part of the story. If the audience is crying, the feeling you get from the audience seats gets depressed, and that's also transmitted to us and in turn back to the audience.
Suzuki: Yes, yes. And I think that when there's 100 people, there's also 100 ways to react. When you make a play, there end up being just as many versions of the play as the amount of people that came to see it, and if I play a role, there are just as many versions of that role as the amount of people who came to see the play. Although it's of course the most important to enjoy myself, like that there's a moment that can only be experienced once in a lifetime. I just wish that the people who see me on the screen or who have formed their own perception are able to feel something as well.

Well then, please show us your enthusiasm now at the end, Ikeda-san.

Ikeda: I think this play truly is entertainment. Because the circus troupe is at the center of the story, there's acrobatics, dance and songs, they're simple but enjoyable scenes to watch. But the essence of the story shows the wavering feelings of a human. Since many things are really happening one after another on the stage, I wonder if it's the kind of feeling like a Disneyland attraction.

I see, that's an interesting comparison.

Ikeda: It's since I think you can experience many things all at once. You can enter a haunted house, you can go on a rollercoaster, it's even fine to get a cup of coffee. It's the carefree feeling of, "let's go visit an interesting place!" I think a lot of people will come to the theater for sure!



( link to the original )