Talk DX is a GRAPH talk feature with the otokoyaku leads of a recent Grand Theatre show. This one, which was recorded towards the end of the Takarazuka run of The Rose of Versailles 2001: Fersen and Marie Antoinette, was published in the July 2001 issue, when the show was being performed in Tokyo.
Ayaki was in Senka at the time, and they also spend some time discussing her previous show with Cosmos Troupe, Nostalgia Across the Sea.
An outtake photo from the back of the magazine is also included.
Talk DX – The Rose of Versailles 2001
Wao: We were really serious this time around, weren’t we (laughs).
Ayaki: Well, we’re always serious! (laughs) Voila~ (making an affected pose)
Wao: (laughs)
Ayaki: But really, Takako-san (Wao) is doing so much to help me out. Even when I totally forget my lines, once I get offstage you’ll ask “Are you okay? Are you okay?” with such concern… And then before a scene together you even said “Do anything! I’ll react to it!”
Wao: So full of myself (laughs). I’m not Andre, but I have that feeling of “I’ll protect Sae-chan (Ayaki)!” (laughs)
Ayaki: I’m grateful (laughs). Takako-san’s Fersen is so manly and gallant, as well as deeply loving, and also he has such strength. As Oscar, those sides of him draw my affections, and as Andre, I can trust in him as a man, and, I don’t know, when we’re in conflict he’s very imposing…
Wao: Isn’t it just that I’m tall? (laughs)
Ayaki: Not at all (laughs). You’re really wonderful <3
Wao: Sae-chan always tries to encourage me this way. Thank you (laughs).
Ayaki: (laughs) But Oscar still has to tell this wonderful Fersen “Please go back to Sweden!” and then he tells her “What would you understand, since you discarded your womanly heart!?”, so as a woman it’s of course really painful for her. Even though she is doing her best and thinking “I have to loyally carry out my duties as a soldier!” (laughs).
Wao: It’s painful for me too. I keep saying such awful things, see (laughs). This Fersen, his head is full of thoughts of the Queen, so he doesn’t notice the signs Oscar’s putting out at all (laughs). If I think about it…it’s so mean~ (laughs). It’s “The Tale of Oscar’s Crushing Defeat” (laughs).
Ayaki: (laughs)
Wao: For this show, you have a role switch in the middle of the run, so I thought you would be having a lot of trouble, but the first time I saw you in rehearsal as Andre, your voice was low, you were calm, and you were expressing his dark side and his size, right? But, in the Oscar rehearsals, even though you didn’t have the costume or the wig, you had Oscar’s aura, and I thought that was just amazing.
Ayaki: Ah~ no, not at all (laughs).
Wao: It was Sae-chan’s voice just the same, but the atmosphere of the way you spoke the lines was different, maybe…I’m getting pompous again here (laughs). I thought “If I was playing two roles like this, would I be able to switch from one to the other as easily as Sae-chan?” – it gave me respect for you. I felt like I was just an audience member watching, “Amazing~”.
Ayaki: This is so embarassing~ (laughs). I’m not amazing at all. When I was Andre I even suddenly fell over right after my entrance onstage (laughs).
Wao: Right, right (laughs). That was when the show had just opened, and you had thought a lot in your own way about how to do Andre’s first entrance, right?
Ayaki: I didn’t like the idea of it seeming practiced and unnatural, so I wanted to come in quite casually when Maron-Glace called out “Andre~!”, but my heel slipped and I landed right on my butt… (laughs)
Wao: But apparently Mizu (Natsuki) fell over in that scene too (laughs). After all, it’s your entrance scene, you have to make an impact! (laughs)
Ayaki: That’s too much impact though~ (laughs).
Wao: It’s fine, it’s fine (laughs).
Wao: Sae-chan, you were so funny when we did “Nostalcia Across the Sea”, remember?
Ayaki: (laughs)
Wao: This time, in the gaps between your scenes in rehearsal, you would sit there and fidget nervously, and on stage you perform wonderfully, back then it was just the opposite. You looked perfectly composed, and when I would look over at you during rehearsals it seemed like “Oho, Sae-chan’s got it together~!”, but then you’d go and do something big (laughs).
Ayaki: (bursts out laughing) I got your name wrong during the play rehearsals, stuff like that, remember?
Wao: But since you were such a happy person, you wouldn’t notice your mistakes at all (laughs). There was a sad scene were you were supposed to call out my name, but you called out your own character’s name and then kept going as if nothing was out of the ordinary. How was I supposed to respond to that (laughs).
Ayaki: (bursts out laughing)
Wao: Should I laugh and call for a break here or should I keep going like this…I struggled (laughs).
Ayaki: And I just kept going (laughs). I did it over and over, too (laughs). Then the people around me pointed it out so finally I said “I’m so sorry~!” for the first time (laughs).
Wao: You’re such a happy person, Sae-chan (laughs).
Ayaki: That was the worst~ (laughs).
Ayaki: I was together with Takako-san in the London performance and other special events. So then when I came to perform with Cosmos Troupe I came bouncing in excitedly, and you accepted me steadfastly (laughs).
Wao: (laughs)
Ayaki: Thanks to that I was able to smoothly fit in to Cosmos troupe, though I was really impudent (laughs). But I’m very comfortable here.
Wao: Rather than a Senka member, you’ve fit in with us as a colleague who’s working with us to make the same show. Probably the only thing that makes us remember ‘Ah, she’s in Senka’ is that you’re in a different dressing room (laughs).
Ayaki: Same here, probably (laughs). Especially this time around, we’re often in different scenes, so I don’t run into Takako much in the wings. So I usually go to Takako’s dressing room to hang out.
Wao: Right, right, you’ll come in and scope things out from behind and then I’ll see you appear in my dressing table mirror (laughs). I get so much playtime (laughs).
Wao: Sae-chan, you’ve always really had it together, right.
Ayaki: Not a bit! (laughs) Weren’t we just talking about all the ways I’d mess up (laughs).
Wao: …We were (laughs). I’m just talking nonsense now (laughs). But I think that cute side where it makes me want to say “What’s going on Sae-cha~n!” is against expectations (laughs). You’re always more prompt than me, and you can speak well.
Ayaki: Not a bit (laughs).
Wao: The mental picture I have of you is someone way ditzier but also way more together than you’d expect (laughs).
Ayaki: No middle ground there (laughs). Nothing’s just at the right level, is it (laughs).
Wao: But Sae-chan, you’re full of things that I don’t have, so I think that’s really nice. I don’t have that…
Ayaki: Like my confusion level? (laughs)
Wao: No, I think I’m definitely plenty confused (laughs).
Ayaki: Really? The way I see it, you seem to really have it together. Because, you know, no matter what I do on stage you’re never shaken…
Wao: No, I’m always so bewildered at those times (laughs). Like “what’s all this?” (laughs)
Ayaki: Like the time with the sword (laughs).
Wao: Right!! (bursts out laughing) I can’t pretend I’m better than Sae-chan~ (laughs). During “Nostalgia Across the Sea”, I forgot to get my sword when I went onstage, so when I was about to cut off Kuroudo’s (Ayaki’s) arm after he was frostbitten in Russia, I didn’t have my own sword (laughs).
Ayaki: So you took my sword. Then…
Wao: There wasn’t anything else to do, so I stole Sae-chan’s sword by force (laughs).
Ayaki: When Takako-san suddenly charged at me I resisted, “Stop it, Umibito (Wao)!” but inside I was like “What!?” (laughs)
Wao: Your eyes were as round as saucers, Sae-chan (laughs).
Ayaki: I won’t forget the look you had in your eyes when you came at me, Takako-san (laughs).
Wao: …I’m sorry, I’m really sorry about that (laughs).
Ayaki: And I hadn’t realized at all that you didn’t have your sword, either (laughs). But it was really amazing. That quick thinking in moments of crisis is really amazing. If I’d forgotten in the same way, I think I would have just floundered (laughs).
Wao: No, it was stupid of me to forget in the first place (laughs). And on top of that, I did it twice (laughs).
Ayaki: (laughs) But I really respect you for being to react in character even at a time like that.
Wao: Well, it was my mistake, so I had to settle it myself (laughs).
Ayaki: When I forget lyrics and such I just freeze, but…
Wao: I’ve made up so many lyrics, haven’t I (laughs). Good enough that I don’t get caught at it, at least (laughs).
Ayaki: (laughs)
Wao: I have high hopes for Sae-chan heading into the Tokyo performance… I wonder what you’ll do next (laughs).
Ayaki: You stop it~ (laughs). You’re taking years off my life (laughs).
Wao: But after the Tokyo performance ends I’ll be separated from Sae-chan again, right?
Ayaki: That’s right.
Wao: So I want you to do something that will stick in my memory (laughs).
Ayaki: I’m sure I’ll be fine (laughs).
Wao: I live in hope (laughs). Sae-chan, you generally say what you’re thinking without hesitation, and the rehearsals and the performances have been so fun, so I’m really glad that we’re able to work together like this. I want to give it our best in the Tokyo performance too, so the people who come to watch leave thinking “We want to see Taka-chan and Sae-chan together again!”
Ayaki: Yes, I’ll do my best! My message for Takako-san…is something I’ll tell you in secret later, personally (laughs).
Wao: (laughs).
Outtake photo (with note from editors)
Takako and Sae-chan often just miss each other onstage and rarely run into each other in the wings. For this month’s “Talk DX”, with their cooperation, we created this fantasy couple photo! He wraps his cloak around her and gives her a passionate gaze…then, on top of this fanservice, Fersen tells Oscar “Your unrequited love is now returned!” Sae-chan seemed so happy!