Oldal 81 [81]
OCR
MARIKO HORI TANAKA looks secluded from the outer grim world. It is surrounded by a high wall and this space, inhabited by women, becomes temporarily an Eden, removed from male-dominated society. When we think of most of the catastrophes and disasters caused by men, this high wall makes the women appear safe, as if it were the only way for them to keep away from any tragedy today. However, the space also resembles a prison with the surrounding high wall. It can be said that the women are trapped in the small space. And this wall is gone, or at least becomes obscure, whenever those women tell their traumatic stories — when they speak their inner monologues in a spotlight or on a darkened stage, as if they were thrown into a dark ocean. Besides, the women who are invited to tea at Sally’s are not always harmonious and joyful. First of all, Sally, Vi, and Lena are old friends, but the fourth woman, Mrs Jarrett, is just Sally’s neighbor and cut off from the others. In the opening scene, she happens to peep through the open door when the other three are chatting. Sally, noticing her, invites her for tea. Mrs Jarrett, who cannot share the others’ memories of the past, is an outsider. However, she tries to bea part of the group by asking questions and taking advantage of the chance to give her views, though she seems to be slighted. She stands apart from the other three in her appearance and in her speech. She wears “leggings and an old khaki jacket,” so that “she’s part prophet of future destruction, part refugee from some unnervingly distorted parallel present.””? “From Mrs Jarrett’s dialectical usages and shorthand terms,” says Cathal Quinn, “one can tell that she speaks estuary English and perhaps she is a class down from the others, not formally educated or sophisticated.”** Her name is abbreviated in the script as just “Mrs J,” and she is never intimately called by her first name, unlike the others. Therefore, “[n]o one seriously engages with her. [...] She is excluded, and her intrusion resented. They [the other women] started by asking, ‘Is it that woman?’ establishing her otherness to them.” Thus, Mrs Jarrett is given the role of Cassandra, a prophetess” who foresaw the 2 Claire Allfree: Escaped Alone, Royal Coutt, review: ‘terrific cast with nowhere to go’, The Telegraph, 29 January 2016, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/escapedalone-royal-court-review-terrific-cast-with-nowhere-to-g/, (accessed 11 July 2016). From a lecture on Escaped Alone by Cathal Quinn at Aoyama Gakuin University on 7 June 2016. Lizzie Loveridge: A CurtainUp London Review Escaped Alone, CurtainUp, 21 January 2016, www.curtainup.com/escapedalonelon16.html, (accessed 11 July 2016). Neil Dowden: Review: Escaped Alone brews storm in a teacup, Londonist, 3 February 2016, https://londonist.com/2016/02/review-escaped-alone-brews-storm-in-a-teacup, (accessed 11 July 2016), calls Mrs Jarrett “an amusingly eccentric, Cassandra-like doomsayer,” while Paul Taylor writes in Escaped Alone, Royal Court Theatre, review: The performance is a rich birthday present, The Independent, 29 January 2016, https://my.independent.co.uk/ arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/escaped-alone-royal-court-theatre-review-theperformance-is-a-rich-birthday-present-a6841546.html, (accessed 11 July 2016), “Mrs J, in a manner that is more head-shaking, gossipy neighbour than Cassandra or Book of Job, delivers bizarre reports of global horror.” + 80°
