To really enjoy Trees and Ghosts, you have to come into it with an open mind and absolutely no irony. Check your cynicism at the door; even the in-flight entertainment (no, really—they have a video with flight attendants and everything) is over the top.
The play tells three stories based on manga (Japanese graphic novels) by Osama Tezuka, the biggest big shot in the manga-drawing world. The first story, “The Great General Goes to the Forest,” tells of a downed fighter pilot in a Japanese forest during World War II, and basically makes the point that war and killing are bad, while trees are not. “The Sacred Plaza,” the most involved story of the three, uses birds in a barely veiled allegory for war (which is bad), and nuclear fallout (also bad). The weakest story was the last one, “The March of the Drum,” which, I think, equates drumming and sex (leading to some awkward moments from our front row seats), and deals with steadfastness, family and craft. Also, war is bad. But the drumming was fantastic.
As you may have gathered, this isn’t a particularly subtle production. The themes are broad and clear, sure, but so is everything else, from the acting to the projections to the costumes and the audience interaction. The actors and cast members play 10 or 15 different instruments (I wish I could have been there when the director discovered one cast member could play the clarinet) and sing, sometimes in English and sometimes in Japanese. There are video clips, slideshows and “live drawing,” which is exactly what it sounds like, and really boring. This is compensated for by having the ensemble jump around in that self-conscious theater way that naturally ends with them all on the floor in funny positions. There’s large-scale origami, and cast members climbing up and down the aisles and into the seats. It’s all really cool and, for the most part, well done, but its very discombobulated, and you’re never sure where to look.
The acting, too, is overexaggerated, mostly in a head-tilted, stilted way. T. Brandon Evans (COL ’08) gets it totally right, and is consistently funny and in the right measure and tone, but the rest of the cast is not always as perfect. All too often they just come out a little flat in the face of all this stuff on stage, or worse, preachy. Jamieson Baker (SFS ’08) manages to act in a way that makes him seem like an anime character, which is pretty cool, and I hope his intention. But even if their individual performances weren’t always totally captivating, as an ensemble they worked well, and had such enthusiasm that I felt myself wanting to smile and wave back when they looked at me.
There just isn’t enough substance here to justify the layers of artifice and meta, not to mention the impressive technical effects. Aiming to instill a sense of childlike wonder and awe, Trees and Ghosts all too often falls into cloying preciousness instead. That being said, if you can provide the childlike wonder yourself, there sure is plenty to be excited about.
Trees and Ghosts is runnng November 8-11 and 14-17 at the Gonda Theater in the Davis Center, on campus. Tickets available at http://performingarts.georgetown.edu
