By Mabel Pais

Ballet & Dance Icon MIKHAIL BARYSHNIKOV
Japanese Star MIKI NAKTANI

Three Letters.
One Tragedy.

‘The Hunting Gun’ is a play Emanuela Barilla brings to New York City. This is the U.S. premiere of Yasushi Inoue’s novella adapted for the stage and performed March 16 – April 15, 2023 (Tuesday through Saturday at 7:30pm, Sunday at 2pm) at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Jerome Robbins Theater, 450 W. 37th Street, New York City.

Adapted for the stage by Serge Lamothe and directed by François Girard, ‘The Hunting Gun’ is a two-hander performed entirely in Japanese starring Miki Nakatani as Shoko, Midori, and Saiko, and Mikhail Baryshnikov in the non-speaking role of Josuke Misugi.

SYNOPSIS
Three letters.
One tragedy.

Josuke Misugi receives three letters from different women: his wife, his mistress and her daughter. The first is from young Shoko, who just discovered her mother’s affair through the reading of her diary. The second is from his wife Midori, revealing she’s known about the infidelity from the start. And the third is a farewell from Saiko, his lover of thirteen years: “By the time you read this, I will no longer be among the living.”

Weaving these three viewpoints with consummate skill, one of Japan’s most celebrated authors Yarushi Inoue gives universal resonance to Misugi’s demise. He turns what could have been the mundane account of adultery into a compelling love story that is considered a classic of world literature.

This stage adaptation is a monologue for three voices, and a single actress embodies all three women, transforming before our eyes. At the end of her letter, Shoko drops her school uniform to reveal Midori’s exuberant outfit who, in turn, undresses to slip into Saiko’s funeral kimono.

Behind a scrim presenting fragments of letters, the increasingly tormented hunter Josuke Misugi cleans his gun. He seems to exist in a different time space. The simple action he performs, which would normally take only a few minutes, is stretched through the entire duration of the play: picking up his gun in ultra-slow-motion, inspecting it, meticulously cleaning its barrels and finally standing to aim at his wife’s back.

Borrowing from Japanese Zen aesthetics, the set’s floor is successively draped with three fundamental elements: water, stone, and wood. After Shoko wanders in a lily pond, the waters withdraw to reveal a terrain of smooth black stones. Then, at the climax of Midori’s rage, the stones magically vanish to expose a wooden deck on which Saiko recites her suicide letter.

KEY CREATIVES

Playwright: (Adapted for the stage by) Serge Lamothe
Actors: Miki Nakatani & Mikhail Baryshnikov
Director: François Girard
Producer Cath Brittan
Creative Producers: David Finn & François Girard
Co-Producer: Misaki Mouri
Set: François Séguin
Lighting: David Finn
Costumes: Renée April
Music: Alexander MacSween

AWARDS

‘The Hunting Gun’ was originally produced by Parco Theatre, Tokyo and Danièle de Fontenay (Usine C, Montreal). It received three Yumiori Awards and two Kinokunya Awards, including two for Best Theatre Production and two for Best Actress.

TICKETS

For more information on the Play, Artists and Tickets, visit thehuntinggun.org.

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‘OUT ON FILM’ HONORS LADIES
By Mabel Pais

Out on Film and Atlanta Pride present the lineup of films for a special ‘Out on Film Spring Fest,’ taking place April 3-6 at the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema.

The film series is the latest innovative presentation by ‘Out on Film,’ which has built a reputation on that spirit, following last year’s celebrated 35th Anniversary edition of the Atlanta-based LGBTQIA+ film festival. The Oscar® qualifying film festival, recently included on MovieMaker Magazine’s “50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee” list, is both one of the nation’s longest running festivals presenting queer cinema, but also a leader among all United States-based fests in terms of exploring new ways to reach audiences and connect them with filmmakers.

Out on Film Festival Director Jim Farmer said, “I am very happy that Out On Film can present a spring series of five exceptional films, as well as a well-received shorts program from our 2022 festival. This series celebrates filmmaking and filmmakers from around the world, and two of our documentaries celebrate Georgia and Atlanta subjects. Coming so soon after our record-setting 2022 film festival, I believe our audiences will be quite impressed with this special series.”

The Out on Film Spring Fest includes a special shorts program presentation, “For the Ladies”, which will feature short films that previously screened at Out on Fest, and made an impact on the film festival circuit, including Aleksandra Odic’s Frida, which won Cannes’ Queer Palm and the Lights on Women Award, and Krizz Gautier’s Keep/Delete, which won awards at the Charlotte and Paradise film festivals.

“FOR THE LADIES” SHORT FILM PROGRAM

Frida
Dir: Aleksandra Odic l Germany l 21m

An encounter between a young nurse and her patient Frida, who is the same age, on the border of professional distance and desire for closeness.

Keep/Delete
Dir: Krizz Gautier l USA l 19m

In a future world where memories are handled like computer files, two lovers decide to undergo a procedure and have their entire relationship wiped from their brains.

Killing Myself
Dir: Jillian Junco l USA l 12m

Eve, a Filipino-American girl, has decided she’s going to kill herself and leaves a suicide note for her mother. When she leaves to get cigarettes for one last smoke, she meets Dawn who pulls her into a fun ride. While her mother discovers her suicide note, she rediscovers life.

Margins
Dir: Emanuela Boisbouvier l USA l 16m

In Los Angeles, during the tumultuous BLM movement, an interracial queer couple, Kai and Lucie, navigate the difficulties of supporting and protecting each other through the complexities of racial inequality and immigration issues.

Static Space
Dirs: John Klein, Kate Black-Spence l USA l 28m

Jamie is a young woman living in rural Indiana struggling to figure out her place and identity. When she inadvertently stumbles across a frequency on her ham radio and makes contact with astronaut Noa currently orbiting Earth, the two women are presented with the opportunity to find meaningful connection, even while worlds apart.

OUT ON FILM

Since its official inception in 1987, ‘Out On Film’ has grown to become one of the major LGBTQIA+ film festivals in the country. Now an Oscar® qualifying film festival and one of USA Today’s 2020 Readers’ Choice picks as one of the top 20 film festivals in North America, ‘Out On Film’ hosts an 11-day film festival in September as well as programming throughout the year.

(Mabel Pais writes on Social Issues, The Arts and Entertainment, Health & Wellness, Cuisine and Spirituality.)