Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Cast: Yuuya Ishizone.
The secrets that come out in the dark, when you are lost in the remoteness of the both the wilderness and the mind, those are the most comfortably haunting secrets to be revealed, they are the ones that others cannot walk away from so easily or be refreshed by the day time sun; the finest and most damning secrets are always best revealed when lost.
Tent is a single handed production from Japan, written, directed and staring Yuuya Ishizone and playing at Spotlites during the Edinburgh Festival this year, it is also a play that, without the very obvious distractions of the horror genre, is one that feels that comes very much out of the myths and legends that surround the mountains of Japan, the Forest of the Dead and the dark secrets that surround it. It is also a play that unfortunately can become a little lost in the translation between thought and delivery.
It is secrets that hold the play together, if not in a tight grip, the spectre of fear holding the audience in a bond that for a while can be exotic, dangerous and the over whelming factor that underpins the play, that of being the true outsider; this is not loneliness in some distant land, not truly being lost in one’s thoughts but the drama and tension that comes with realising you are the one who is the stranger; that deep in the forest where you pitch your tent and your statements, you are the one who is odds with everybody else.
Yiuuya Ishizone’s work is not to be dismissed but in a play that relies heavily on the feeling of being the outsider, it would still be of a benefit to have someone else look in on the matter at hand and give direction and empathy where it is needed to make the performance less about the ego and more about the message that is being unravelled and torn from the mouth as if being urged to speak the truth of a human existence.
A very interesting premise, one to enjoy in the early part of the day at the Edinburgh Fringe, Tent is a beguiling trip into a world where sometimes the answer is best left alone.
Ian D. Hall