A day at the theatre...

Me, xparrot, utopiantrunks,elzkitten, and Laura (Elz's friend), all made our way out to Takarazuka today to see Takarazuka's "The Scarlet Pimpernel." Great fun was had by all, despite the whole "wait, wait, what did they say, what's going on?!" The combination of it being in Japanese, mostly *sung* Japanese, and covering such topics as French and English Revolutionaries (which of *course* is exactly the kind of useful vocab we learned in Japanese class. Really. :-p) making it a "joy" to follow. But really, between the sets, the crazy costumes (hey, look at that, human peacocks! And sparkles, oh boy howdy, do they SPARKLE), and the great singing, who needs plot?

Though I think my favorite twist of all was the Japanese girls (for those who don't know, Takarazuka is a all-female performing troupe, very famous in Japan) playing 18th Century British aristocratic *men* dressed up as peasant French women. Hee, lets hear it for gender games!

It wasn't till *after* the performance that we found the nice printed-up *English* synopsis. We're all standing there in the lobby reading it going "oh, OH, oh...*that's* why they...ahh, I see". Very enlightening. So really, the only remaining mystery was how in the world the audience knows when to applaud? Is it some crazy, magic formula? Cause it seemed plenty *random* and yet no one ever seemed to clap out of turn. Oh, oh Japan. :-p