KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 — The plot of the iconic Japanese story of Rashomon begins in a bamboo forest in Kyoto when a samurai is murdered and his wife is raped.
The story unfolds through the lens of four witnesses but here’s the catch — they all tell a different story.
Who is telling the truth and who should the audience believe?
Originally a short story first published by Ryunosuke Akutagawa in 1922, Rashomon became a successful film after legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa adapted it for the silver screen 1950, introducing Japanese cinema to the world.
Today, the film is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made and it’s even responsible for the term Rashomon effect which is used to describe contradictory accounts of one event.
Many stage versions too have been introduced to theatregoers since and this weekend, the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (Klpac) marks its sixth restaging of Rashomon but for the first time, the theatre company will be reverting to the traditional version instead of a contemporary setting.
Klpac artistic director and co-founder Joe Hasham who is directing the upcoming play told Malay Mail he wanted to revisit the play not only because it is an iconic piece of theatre but the relevance of truth (or truths in this case) and justice.
“The modern audience will be able to relate to the story because it’s about truth and trust.
“And do you not think our Malaysian audiences are interested in truth and trust? Of course they are.
“What I’ve learned over the years is that Malaysian audiences are very intelligent and they don’t just see something for its surface value, they scratch beneath the surface and I’m sure they’ll be doing a lot with this play,” he said.
Due to the depiction of rape in Rashomon, the play comes with a trigger warning for sexual and physical violence.
But perhaps the more fascinating subject at hand is the way in which the significance of rape was presented in Akutagawa’s 1922 short story and Kurosawa’s film and how that would fit in today’s socially aware audience.
In the story, the samurai’s wife says she was raped by the bandit but the bandit claims it was a seduction instead.
“I sat down with Maiya Goshima (who plays the wife) on several occasions and tried to work out the psychology of why she would do something like this and her response is as varied as I think the audience’s response will be when they see it,” said Hasham.
He added that the rape in the story is not what was in question but the murder of the samurai.
“As with most stories that were manufactured in that era, rape and a woman’s chastity was not important — ‘It’s only a woman’, that’s the attitude of the day then.
“But to kill a man and a high-born samurai at that...” explained Hasham.
“I’m sure many people will have many differing views as to the significance of the rape and whether it was rape or whether it was purely seduction.
“Whichever way you look at it, it’s rape even though the woman may give in and also take the lead role in the seduction, she was put in that situation by the man so to all intents and purposes no matter what label you put on it, it was rape.”
It took Goshima and Doppo Narita, who plays the bandit, to feel comfortable with each other before they could successfully nail the delicate scene.
“Particularly being Japanese, everything is so polite.
“They are both extremely professional actors but they are also wonderful human beings and they care so they care about each other’s space, safety and comfort zones,” he added.
Interestingly, the rape scene isn’t the most difficult scene to attempt but the combat sequence between the bandit and the samurai which involves using real samurai swords.
The other challenge for Hasham is presenting the play in three languages — Japanese, Mandarin and English – so that everything blends seamlessly and doesn’t sound jarring when one actor speaks in Japanese and another responds in English.
“I just hope that they (audiences) take it for what it is and I hope audiences don’t look at it as a political statement that anyone is trying to make or don’t look at it as a gender statement that anyone is trying to make.
“They could bring it up quite easily if they wanted to but that’s not the intention – the intention is just to present a great piece of theatre and hopefully we succeed,” Hasham said.
Rashomon’s cast includes foreign and local talents such as Doppo Narita, Maiya Goshima, Lee Swee Keong, Ho Lee Ching, Omar Ali and Datuk Faridah Merican.
Catch the play at Pentas 1, Klpac from February 29 until March 8. Showtimes are at 8pm and 3pm (on Sundays), tickets are priced at RM60, RM80 and RM100.
