This talk, recorded towards the end of the Takarazuka run of Snow Troupe’s 2011 Romeo et Juliette production, features Otozuki Kei, Sagiri Seina, and Misuzu Aki. It was published in the March 2011 issue of GRAPH.
(Note that while this production is known for the March 11 earthquake occurring in the middle of it, it is not referenced in this talk as it was recorded around a month before and published likely a few days before or after.)
Talk DX: Romeo et Juliette – Otozuki Kei, Sagiri Seina, Misizu Aki
Otozuki: Although we’re already more than halfway past the opening in the Grand Theatre, every day there are so many new aspects and new discoveries, so it went by in a blink.
Sagiri: It doesn’t feel like it’s more than half over at all, no.
Misuzu: While we were having fun chatting we ended up here, so no matter how much time passes, we still won’t have settled down.
Otozuki: But that’s nice, right.
Misuzu: Since it changes every day, the fresh feeling doesn’t expire.
Sagiri: I’m finding lots of places where I can play around–in a good way–and I think I’m relaxed enough now that I can really enjoy that.
Mizusu: Ah~, I see.
Sagiri: We can do a lot of things freely in the masquerade scene (laughs).
Misuzu: And also, in the ‘La Haine’ scene, surprisingly, the two of us can play around there.
Otozuki: I just recently watched that scene from the wings for the first time. And then you two were somehow seeming really mocking as you greeted [Lady Montague], so I was thinking ‘What is that?’ (laughs)
Misuzu: The atmosphere of the Capulet Team on stage right, and the Montague Team on stage left, is just too different (laughs). The Capulet Team is so serious.
Sagiri: Romeo (Otozuki)’s mother (Asaki Yumemi) is serious too, but somehow, just with the two of us, she’s…
Misuzu: She’s like ‘You darn brats!’ (laughs)
Sagiri: (laughs) And it’s not like we’ve decided what we’re doing…
Misuzu: Right, right. It changes day to day, so, if you felt like paying attention to that…
Sagiri: Do you have any bits like that, Romeo-san?
Otozuki: Hm… It’s basically all fixed for me, so…
Misuzu: What about ‘Les Rois du Monde?’
Otozuki: Sometimes I’ll let myself get swept up in things (laughs). I’d like to do more things there from now on, I think. The point of that scene is to show how I’m having fun and enjoying myself with my friends, after all. I think the more we enjoy ourselves there the more potent Act 2 will be.
Sagiri: That’s true.
Otozuki: In my first appearance where I’m singing ‘Un Jour’, it was really hard for me to get into the feelings of it.
Sagiri: You’re saying some incredible things, right (laughs).
Misuzu: ‘I could be with any of them if I wanted to play around’. (laughs)
Sagiri: You’ve been ignoring all the girls…
Otozuki: (laughs)
Sagiri: But isn’t Romeo one of the most charismatic members of our group?
Otozuki: Well… (laughs) But I think he isn’t necessarily happy about that.
Sagiri: I think Mercutio (Sagiri) is probably a pretty pushy type, and runs from one partner to the next… (laughs) He definitely doesn’t have any particular lover.
Otozuki: But I think the girls probably understand that. Benvolio (Mizusu) seems like he’d have a really mature romance, actually.
Misuzu: (laughs)
Sagiri: What I’m picturing is that he’d have a once-in-a-lifetime love confession… Like with a huge bouquet of flowers, that would put Paris’ to shame (laughs).
Otozuki: Some kind of scenic thing would be perfect, right?
Misuzu: (laughs)
Sagiri: But I think he’d be unexpectedly popular with people he wasn’t trying to pursue (laughs). His desires and the type of people who approach him are different… Well, that’s just what I’m imagining (laughs).
Misuzu: Hm… I think that’s probably pretty close. I don’t need a cheap love (laughs).
Otozuki: Cheap love! (laughs) (To Sagiri) You’re the President of Cheap Love! I guess (laughs).
Sagiri: Ah… (laughs)
Otozuki: I think that it isn’t just Romeo, but that just about everyone has doubts about the feud between the two Houses. But Romeo is the only one who will come one and say them openly. No matter what his friends say, Romeo refuses to waver in his opinions, so I think in a way he’s a stubborn, or rather, a single-minded person. Even though, because of that, his feelings begin to stay further and further from those of his friends.
Misuzu: He won’t let himself just be swept along by the current.
Otozuki: Right, right.
Sagiri: I think the two of us understand that about him too. And, though we like that about him, when it comes to marrying Juliette we can’t just go along with that…
Misuzu: Yeah. In ‘On Dit dans le Rue’ in Act 2, though I can understand technically what Romeo is trying to say, as Benvolio, I’m thinking “Still…why~?”
Mercutio: I think Mercutio really does comprehend it too.
Misuzu: Yeah. I think he’s putting on the stupidity even though he understands.
Otozuki: Yeah, he’s playing the fool.
Sagiri: That’s right! …we keep saying (laughs). But even though he understands, it’s like he struggles so much to control his anger that he doesn’t want anyone else around him to figure out what he knows.
Misuzu: It’s an aimless anger, right. I think everyone is the same way. Though they all have doubts and unhappiness with the feud between the two Houses, there’s still nothing they could do about it, so in the end it turns into fighting just so they can vent those feelings. And then they all get caught up in it more and more. [Mercutio] understands all of that as well.
Sagiri: You’re right. At the very end, when Mercutio is talking to Romeo, it’s like everything he’d been hiding finally comes loose and flies out (laughs).
Otozuki: That’s so abstract~ (laughs).
Sagiri: (laughs) It’s not that he said it because he wanted to, but at that moment it just came out by itself, is how it feels.
Otozuki: But I really do feel like something is coming loose at that moment. When I’m looking in Chigi’s (Sagiri’s) eyes… Chigi’s eyes are so brown.
Sagiri: I think since they have all the lights on them it’s more than usual.
Otozuki: Yeah, they’re more brown than they look now. I wish the audience could seem them too sometime (laughs). Right before he dies his eyes are so pure, in the best way.
Misuzu: In a way, Romeo and Mercutio died as children, but Benvolio was the only one who had to become an adult..
Otozuki: “Had to” become an adult… (laughs).
Misuzu: (laughs) At the beginning, they’re all children together, but after the two of them die he’s forced to grow up. I think it starts at the time of the duel, where Romeo admonishes him a bit, and suddenly he becomes aware of something he couldn’t see before that Romeo could… I think that’s where his awareness starts to change.
Otozuki: I wonder if Tybalt (Oozuki Tooma) was thinking the same way too. I feel like, if we could just open up to each other and talk, we could be really good friends (laughs). Well, our Houses were enemies in the first place so I suppose it had to be that way…
Sagiri: No, but that would just make more problems! Tybalt likes Juliet too, remember. If you’re enemies you can have it out directly, but if you were friends, that’s just…
Otozuki: Oh, that’s right! That would be a bit of a bother, huh (laughs).
Sagiri: There are so many songs in this show, right.
Otozuki: Yeah. In my situation, I don’t dance that much in this show, so it feels like I’m pinning all my hopes on the songs… But what I really like is how everyone sings their songs. When it comes to their songs, their desires come out: ‘I want to do it this way, I want to do it that way’. So you can hear how genuine they are in their singing. Recently, what I’ve thought is really nice is in Les Beaux, Les Laids, when you go out on the Silver Bridge, after ‘The power of love~’, you can hear the voice singing ‘Ah~’. I had just assumed it was Koma (Saou Kurama), but it comes in after Koma stopps singing so I was like ‘Huh?’ and went and looked, and when I realized it was Mattsu (Misuzu) singing I was startled (laghs).
Misuzu: (laughs)
Otozuki: You don’t get that kind of melody in Japanese songs. I wonder if that’s the kind of melodic line French people like. I really like it.
Misuzu: It’s not just in that song, but doesn’t the score change keys at the most superb moments?
Sagiri: It’s full of key changes, huh.
Misuzu: That’s such a good thing about it. Though it’s hard on us singing it, to the listener, those points just raise the level of emotion even more…
Sagiri: You get swept up in the music, right.
Otozuki: Totally, totally.
Misuzu: I think ‘Oh, this is great’. Though it’s like I’m looking down on it from above somehow (laughs).
Otozuki, Misuzu: (laugh)
Otozuki: Once, during the Balcony scene, I slipped on the ladder a little bit. Right before the kiss I could hear the audience reacting, “Aah!”. And then, I was a bit flustered, so I could barely get “Good night,” out properly (laughs), and when I was going down the ladder I slipped down about two rungs. I was totally fine, though.
Sagiri: My knife often flies off during the dance at the start of Act 2.
Otozuki: I know (laughs). And then Mattsu picks it up for you, right?
Sagiri: She does. Because like, that’s right before ‘I might as well cut your throat~’ where I have to threaten Romeo with it!
Misuzu: It just wants to be free.
Sagiri: (laughs) So in the space of a moment, Benvolio will pick it up and hand it over without anyone being the wiser…
Otozuki: So cool! I didn’t know that. I always see Mattsu pick it up, but nothing past that.
Misuzu: It’s really quick, just ‘swoosh’. I always wish that I could hand it over with some more acting to it, but over all I’m just ‘I have to get it to her fast!’
Sagiri: Since it’s right before a song where I have to use the knife, you’re handing it over with the most perfect down-to-the-wire timing.
Otozuki: I’ll have to watch that sometime (laughs).
Misuzu: But we know why it keeps falling, right.
Sagiri: Yes! It get caught on the sleeve of my costume… I’ve decided to try and adjust how I’m dancing.
Otozuki: Since the costumes were all new designs for this production, there have been a lot of incidents with them. Like when after Quelle est le Prix, Benvolio takes Romeo’s knife away–the sleeves of my costume are covered in obstacles (laughs).
Misuzu: There are belt-like decorations all over the sleeves so I’ll get caught on those, or the knife will get caught on her cuff…
Otozuki: ‘You Missed’ ‘You Missed’ ‘Success’ sort of thing (laughs).
Otozuki: I’m really happy that we got to do a show like this at this specific time. It feels almost miraculous that our new Snow Troupe could perform this show… And the poster and such say ‘Our Encounter Was a Miracle’, too…
Sagiri: This is our change to introduce ourselves as the new Snow Troupe, after all. It’s like, we’d better do our best! (laughs)
Otozuki: (laughs) Don’t you think it would be a better idea to write that down and post it somewhere?
Sagiri: (laughs) I hope that everyone’s determination, I guess, those feelings come together as synergy and improve the show even more. That’s what I’m thinking every day, so I think by the time this issue comes out, the show will have become something really incredible, so please please come see. If you come watch you’ll be shocked!
Otozuki, Misuzu: (burst out laughing)
Otozuki: What? What are you saying~!
Misuzu: This is my first performance as a Snow Troupe member, but I’m so grateful for how warmly everyone accepted me from the very first day of rehearsals. This is a show where we’re performing as ‘teams’ a lot, so I wonder if that helped me deepen my relationship with everyone so quickly… I think I’ve been able to relax a bit since opening day, and I feel that if I go in fresh every day and try to enjoy myself as much as possible, the audience will enjoy themselves even more, so perhaps those who choose to attend around when this magazine comes out…
Sagiri: Oh? Are you going to say it?
Misuzu: It’s going to become something incredible, so you’ll be shocked! (laughs)
Otozuki, Sagiri: (burst out laughing)
Otozuki: Every day is like a fresh start to me, and it’s so rewarding that half the production went by in a flash. I want to value each and every remaining day even more. Right now, even the most junior actreses are all glittering… When we get to the Tokyo performance, everyone’s individual qualities will be even more polished and the troupe will be dazzling, so you’ll be shocked!
Misuzu, Sagiri: (burst out laughing)
Sagiri: Amazing! You said it so smoothly (laughs).