[94] 酸素を売る男 AN OXYGEN TANK SALESMAN

酸素を売る男

4月15日、愛知芸術センター小ホールで行われた、イッセー尾形の一人芝居を見てきました。これで二回目になります。
５９歳のコメディアンは６人の役を演じました。公園で孫をおぶった老人、山で酸素を売る男、札幌の時計台で客を待つキャバレーのホステス、大量の返品に驚く中年社長、無駄な買い物で自己嫌悪に陥っている新幹線の中の女性、四国から北海道まで流しをしているギタリスト、パロディー「山椒太夫」の厨子王等です。
演技が面白くて一分間に一回は笑いました。中でも酸素を売る男は面白かった。２０００メートルの山腹で、「さあ、ここが酸素が買える最後の地点だよー、一本、たった４０００円だ。値引きをしてもいいんだよー」と大声で酸素を売っているのですが、登山者は誰も買わない。とうとう販売に疲れて息絶え絶えになり、男自身が酸素を吸う破目になります。また、返品に圧倒される社長も面白かった。返品の山を見て、社長は「こんなことでくじけてどうするんだ」と社員を激励するのですが、結局は社長自身が一番やる気をなくしているのです。
一人の役を大体１５分ほど演じると、舞台の袖に行って衣装（かつら、靴、サングラス、化粧等）を変えます。衣装掛け、鏡台、靴、道具箱、数本のペットボトルに取り囲まれて衣装を変えるのですが、観衆は変わっていく姿を刻々と見ることができます。衣装を変え終わるころには、別人に変身しているのです。舞台の照明が明るくなると、そこには新しい人間が立っているわけです。
演じている役になり切り、自己嫌悪に陥った女性を演ずるときは、身体の動き、顔の表情、話し方など全部が、その女性になるのです。老人を演ずるときは、手足の動き、話し方の癖までが老人なのです。遠くから見ると、本当の老人が演じていると思うくらいです。
演じている場所の表現もうまい。酸素を売る男を見たとき、本当に２０００メートルの高い山で酸素を売っていると思わせました。周りの山々を見下ろして「絶景！」と感嘆したり、遠くに富士山を見つけて有頂天になったりするのです。
講演の後で、サインをもらい握手をしました。また見たいものです。

イッセー尾形の漫画入り布巾にサイン
Issey Ogata's signature on his caricature cloth

私と尾形さんとmy wife

                   

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            AN OXYGEN TANK SALESMAN

I again enjoyed Issey Ogata’s one-man show for an hour and a half in the Aichi Prefectural Arts Theater on April 15.

The 59-year-old comedian performed six different characters: an old man carrying his baby grandchild on his back in a park, an oxygen tank salesman on a high mountainside, a cabaret club hostess waiting for her customer at a cold Sapporo Clock Tower, a middle-aged company president baffled by a huge amount of returns, a self-loathing woman in a Shinkansen train complaining her purchase of useless things, a young guitarist strolling from Shikoku to Hokkaido, and a parody of “Sansho Dayu (a story of a boy separated from his sister and mother).”

His performance was so humorous that the audience laughed once every minute. I laughed at the oxygen salesman a lot. He tried to sell handy oxygen tanks to mountain climbers on a 2,000-meter high mountainside, shouting, “This is the last spot you can get oxygen tanks. They cost only 4,000 yen each, but you can get a discount,” but no climber bought one. In the end, he himself began to breathe oxygen from a tank because he was out of breath from his hard sales work. The performance of the president was funny, too. Looking at the enormous returns, he talked to his employees not to be discouraged, but in the end he revealed that he himself was the most distressed.
Every time Ogata finished acting a character for about 15 minutes, he went to the stage corner, where he changed his costumes from wigs to shoes to sunglasses to make-ups. You could watch how he changed his costumes amid a dress hanger, a mirror stand, shoes, boxes, and a few PET bottles. By the time he finished changing costumes, he became a completely different character. When the stage light was on, you saw a new character standing on the stage.
He completely turned into the person he was performing. If he was acting like a self-hating woman, his body movements, facial expressions, way of talking became those of hers. If he acted like an old man, his whole being became one. Even the movement of his hands and feet, and the speech habits were those of his. If you looked at him from a distance, you would think an old man was performing.
He knew exactly the place he was acting at. When I saw him perform as an oxygen salesman, I thought as if he were really standing at the top of a 2,000-meter high mountain. The salesman gasped at the beautiful scenery looking down upon the surrounding mountains. He became hilarious to have found Mt. Fuji in the far distance.
After the play, I got his autograph and shook hands with him. I want to see his performance again.