![[RASHOMON]](rashom2.jpg)
![[Line drawing - Samurai and Bandit fight]](rashom1.jpg)
The full text of Rashomon is available on request.
Please note that this text is copyright and ask permission before using
it. Thanks.
Requests to perform Rashomon should, in the first case, be
directed to me.
Until the 6th century, the walled city of Kyoto was the capital of Japan. The Rashomon Gate was the largest entrance to the city. With the decline of Kyoto, the Rashomon became a derelict place of thieves and abandoned corpses. A priest shelters from a rainstorm at the Rashomon, troubled by the events he has witnessed that day. He meets a young servant running away and wigmaker, robbing the hair from bodies abandoned at the Gate by those too poor to afford burial. Held together briefly by the storm, they discuss how a bandit has been arrested for the robbery and murder of a young samurai and the rape of the samurai's wife. But the bandit's account and other evidence given at the trial strongly conflict, and a complex web of puzzles, lies and illusions unfolds.
"Yesterday, just past noon, I met them. She alighted from her horse. A
breath of wind blew and raised her veil so I could see her face. She
looked like a goddess. Like a doll...
Only a glimpse, then she was gone. A little breath of air..."
(MUSIC PLAYS OVER AUDIENCE'S ENTRY. SHAFTS OF LIGHT ILLUMINATE THE DARK STAGE LIKE EVENING LIGHT BREAKING THROUGH HOLES IN A BROKEN ROOF. CORPSES CAN BE MADE OUT LYING ON THE FLOOR. THE MUSIC CONTINUES UNDER SPEECH AND SOUND. THE COMPANY MAKE THE SOUND OF CROWS AS THEY ENTER. THE FOLLOWING SPEECH IS BROKEN AMONGST THE COMPANY SPOKEN STRONGLY AND WITH LITTLE COLOUR.)
(THE SOUND OF THUNDER, VERY LOUD, AND HEAVY RAIN. THE CROWS RESPOND TO THE THUNDER AS THE STAGE CLEARS. THE "CORPSES" LIE DOWN, AND THE PRIEST BEGINS TO SPEAK TO THE AUDIENCE.)
(HE WALKS INTO A SHAFT OF LIGHT AND WAVES HIS ARM, INDICATING THE IMAGINED RASHOMON GATE ABOVE.)
(HE TURNS AND INDICATES A CORPSE.)
(HE SMILES)
The full text of Rashomon is available on request.
Please note that this text is copyright and ask permission before using
it. Thanks.
Requests to perform Rashomon should, in the first case, be directed to
me.
(IN THE COURT. THE WIFE KNEELS ON A MAT, STARING AT THE JUDGE. THE PRIEST KNEELS BY THE WIFE TO CONSOLE HER.)
(SHE BEGINS TO SHAKE.)
(THE LIGHTS ARE CROSS-FADING TO THE GROVE, THE PRIEST CHANGES INTO THE BANDIT TAJOMARU. TAJOMARU'S LAUGHTER CAN BE HEARD.)
(HE STRIKES HER ACROSS THE FACE AND SENDS HER REELING.)
(TAJOMARU HITS HER AGAIN. SHE IS KNOCKED UNCONSCIOUS. PAUSE. TAJOMARU LEAVES. THE STAGE DARKENS.)
(THEY SIT, STARING AT ONE ANOTHER. IT IS CLEAR HE BLAMES AND LOATHES HER.)
(SHE IS SEARCHING FOR HER DAGGER.
HER WORDS ARE STRANGE AND MECHANICAL.)
(SHE HAS FOUND HER DAGGER.)
(SHE GIGGLES)
(THE SAMURAI MAKES MUFFLED NOISES BEHIND THE GAG.)
(AT THIS SHE DRIVES THE DAGGER INTO HIS CHEST. AFTER A MOMENT, SHE
STAGGERS BACK, STARING AT WHAT SHE HAS DONE. SHE SITS ON THE GROUND.)
(THE LIGHTS FADE TO BLACK. SHE STANDS CENTRE IN A POOL OF LIGHT. STREAKS OF RED LIGHT BEGIN TO ILLUMINATE HER AND THE THE DEAD SAMURAI.)
(SHE MIMES IT, TAKING THE DAGGER. PAUSE.)
(SHE IS HOLDING THE KNIFE TO HER THROAT)
(SHE DROPS THE KNIFE.)
(THE LIGHTS ARE FADING. A QUIET DRUM BEATS IN THE DARKNESS.)
(THE SOUND OF TAJOMARU LAUGHING IS PICKED UP BY THE COMPANY, AND TURNS INTO THE CAW OF THE CROWS AT THE RASHOMON GATE. MUSIC SILENCES THEM, THEN FADES AS THE HOUSELIGHTS RISE.)
End of Act 1 - INTERVAL
The full text of Rashomon is available on request.
Please note that this text is copyright and ask permission before using
it. Thanks.
Requests to perform Rashomon should, in the first case, be
directed to me.
As cast, three actors "double" all ten characters as follows:
Optionally, the casting could increased to six - three more actors playing the Bandit, the Samurai and the Wife. This reduces the doubling and enlarges the potential of the verse chorus sections. The additional actors can start the play amongst the corpses at the Rashomon Gate. Changes in the doubling naturally affect the structure and design of the play - an earlier draft used a full cast of eleven, including The Judge, who has been written out of this text. The additional numbers detracted from the storytelling element of the play, but made it more accessible to an amateur company.
Running time: Approximately 2 hours with interval.
Combining two short stories by one of Japan's first "modern writers, Ryonosuke Akutagawa, Rashomon was the Japanese film Director Akira Kurosawa's first internationally successful film, winning both the 1951 Venice Film Festival and the 1952 Oscar award for Best Foreign Film, and bringing Kurosawa and the actor Toshiro Mifune to the attention of the world. Later, they would work together on more films and surpass their success with Seven Samurai.
The film adaptation of Rashomon was followed in 1959 by a version for the American stage, by Fay and Michael Kanin, with Claire Bloom and Rod Steiger, and a Westernised Hollywood adaptation The Outrage, with Paul Newman.
This production was not based on either the film script by Shinobu Hashimoto and Akira Kurosawa (1950) or the stage play (1959). Both these scripts deny the bleak nature of Akutagawa's work by "tagging" on an optimistic ending. Instead, returning to the source stories, At the Rashomon and In a Grove, the play deals with an altogether darker view of the world.
Staging is best in the round, or on three sides, with the audience close to the action. In the original production, the stage was surrounded on all sides by a scaffolding frame, with towers and platforms in two opposing corners, for the judge. The audience looked through the framework to the stage. This proved especially claustrophobic in the fight scenes, staged by Aikido black belt Rod Birtles and myself, as weapons crashed against the scaffolding, feet away from the audience.
Live music and effects are also very important to the play. The company made the sound of the crows, accompanied by recorded effects sampled from their own voices. A live thunder sheet was amplified and treated with acoustic effects. Verse sections of the text were also "treated" acoustically. Traditional Japanese Noh theatre is accompanied by flute and three drums. Other suitable Japanese instruments are the Koto (a 13-string zither), the Biwa (a 4-string lute) and the Shamisen (a 3-stringed Kabuki instrument). The Western instruments that we substituted are; percussion, flute, light woodwind, violin or viola. In this production, original music was written and performed by Julian Stocker.
The full text of Rashomon is available on request.
Please note that this text is copyright and ask permission before using
it. Thanks.
Requests to perform Rashomon should, in the first case, be
directed to me.
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