Subject:And the Soul Shall Dance
Wakako Yamauchi’s play And the Soul Shall Dance seemed to be heavily influenced by the works of Tennessee Williams. Blanch Dubois and Emiko are almost cross-cultural counterparts. They are both women who have been driven to point of madness by abusive relationships and obsessions with the past.
In And the Soul Shall Dance, Emiko is a beautiful and tragic figure. Her life in Japan was a happy one of song, dance, and love affairs. Forced to marry her sister’s widower, she is dislocated from her family and way of life. Her husband, Oka resents her intensely. Also unhappy, he uses violence and abusive language to lash out at Emiko. Educated to be gentile and sensitive, this harsh relationship is too much for her to bear. She honestly believes that if she can just return to Japan, things will be as they were before. But, her situation is complicated when she is robbed of her only source of hope. The audience sympathizes with her because we are given a glimpse of her past. In the second act, she tries to sell her kimonos to Hana. This reminded me of Blanch Dubois final line in A Streetcar Named Desire, “I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers.”
posted by Averie @ 11:23 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I thought it was very insightful to relate the two plays together by describing that the women are both driven to the point of madness by abusive relationships. Also, I agree that the audience sympathizes with Emiko because of her past. Do you think that a person's own past determines that amount of sympathy and how does the director use the audiences emotions to further develop the description of her past?
I think that we feel for the characters so immensly due to the use of realism. The genre of realism makes it very easy to relate to the characters of this performance. You being to think of times you have been in similar situations, and the emotions of our own lives begin to effect our views of the characters. I don't think other genres lend themselves to this introduction of feelings into the audience.
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