Main Issues

• title: The first to be re-constructed after the bomb were two bridges, One Yin and the other Yang bridge.  "The city [Hiroshima] was built on the seven streams of the river Ota, and so it was important to re-establish transport links."
• survival --
  "The Seven Streams of River Ota is about people from different parts of the world [Houston, New York, Paris, Czeck, Germany, Montreal] who came to Hiroshima and found themselves confronted with their own devastration [egotism, past trauma, family deaths] and their own enlightenment.  For if Hiroshima is a city of death and destruction, it is also of rebirth and survival" (1).
  "The outcome of this highly organised thing, war, is experienced in chaos, and it embodies the end of many things: the end of life, of belief, of loving, the end of certain forms of society.  It's in this sense that the idea of the Hiroshima bomb naturally leads us towards the idea of renewal; the idea of death towards the idea of sensuality and life.  There is in death -- it may seem terrible to say, but it's nevertheless true -- a deep sensuality, a profound fulfillment of carnal reality."(Charest  89-90)
• the merging of East and West (e.g. Nozomi, Sarah Weber and Pierre as "Madame Butterfly"; Sophie and NO character; Walter and Loyang beauty)
• the use of mirrors and video screens; play within the play.
• the use of different languages (e.g. English, French, Japanese, & German); translation through simultaneous translator or subtitles.
• the shifting of scenes on stage and in front of the audience, or coexistence of past and present (The Traces of Time IMAGE)
• production process: "Simply put, writing-rehearsal-performance-translation becomes rehearsal-performance-translation-writingl  Seen in a linear manner, the starting point for most creations becomes, for me, their final point." (Charest 178)

Issues and Questions for discussion

• The use of video screen:
  • alternation between still pictures and moving pictures (p. 2; p. 5)
  • How do the characters (Luc: p. 5 and the mother-in-law: pp. 10-11) respond to the screen on stage
• The Relationship between Luc and Nozomi:
  • Luc's ambivalent position (both sympathetic and intrusive)
  • Nozomi's attitudes toward Luc--why does she need a picture?  Why does she want to show her body?  Is she in love with Luc?
  • The role of the mother-in-law

• The development of Jeffrey 1 and Jeffrey 2's relationship:
  • How is the past, or Jeffrey 2's identity, revealed?
  • how are they contrasted with the other tenants (Tony and Kevin as a rock-and-roll band)?  Which brings them closer, blood relationship or their mutual sympathy?
• symbolic use of spaces such as the bathroom (its crowdedness) in an apartment building

• the function of "the Doctor" -- with stethoscope; Susan's performing mercy killing
• the general setting of Dutch Red-Light District and the cafe (p. 37).

• the use of mirror  pp. 45; and the interaction between the two sides of the mirror e.g. on p. 47 and 57
• the relationship between young Jana and Sarah pp. 46-47; p. 49-51

• the original story introduced on p. 50
• How is Nozomi different from Mme Butterfly?  (She dies of childbirth, but the mother-in-law keeps Jeffrey 2 away from Luc; see pp. 19 & 31; the image of the doll at the end of Part I.)
• Jeffrey 2's sense of identity: p. 14
• variation & extension of the Butterfly motif: Sarah Weber pp. 51 - 57 (Sarah's enactment of Butterfly role on pp. 51 and 57; Jana's version on p. 55);
• kimono re-appears on pp. 126; 133

mixture of languages and places (e.g. Maurice on pp, 55-56),
Noh play; Dutch Red-Light District; Zen;
Prague in Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park(106); Puppet show (Part VI);
the meeting of characters in Part VII (p. 141), and the garden (p. 139)

-- Are they properly or meaningfully used?

• the role of the translator and the translation booth:
  • Since the play can also do subtitles, why does it use the translator?  (pp. 58; 78)
• photo booth pp. 60; 77; 92
• the role of the French play

• Jana's appreciation of Zen p. 105; of Hiroshima 106
• The process of the interview: different angle at different times 107-108; editting 111;
• What role does Patricia as a documentary director play?  Is she a parody of Lepage himself?
• the problems between Patricia and Walter pp. 115-
• the use of the puppets (puppet servants, and puppet-Jana) pp. 119

• the inter-relationship among Pierre, David and Hanako
• the garden 137
• the kimono dance p. 145

Seven Parts and their characters:

Charaters:

A few inconsistencies:
e.g. In Seven Streams - came to Japan in 1995 to study calligraphy
In The Confessional, he came back from China in 1989.
 
 

Part	Characters	Plot
I Moving Pictures	Luke O'Connor--American soldier from Houston Nozomi--a Hibakusha (victim of atomic bombs)	time: 1945-46; place: Hiroshima --the meeting of Luke and Nozomi; Luke in his attempt to take pictures of the house to show damages done by the atomic bombs. -- p. 7 "Please, I thought you took pictures of physical damages."
II.  Two Jeffreys	Jeffrey 1-- Luke's first son Jeffrey 2-- Luke's son with Nozomi, a Jazz musician Ada -- Dutch; student of music and in love with Jeffrey 1. Karen -- the landlady	time: 1965; place: New York -- the meeting of Jeffrey 1 and Jeffrey 2 in Karen's house, with noise from upstairs. the past:  -- Jeffrey 2's  birth (P2, scene 3 & 8) -- Nozomi's death (P2, scene 12) --Luke's anti-Americanism and leukemia (pp. 25; 30)
III.  A Wedding	Jeffrey 1; Jeffrey 2; Ada;  Hanako -- a translator and Jeffrey 2's wife (their son David, already 14) Susan --	time: 1985; place: Amsterdam -- Jeffrey 1 wants to marry Ada in order to have mercy killing (which is allowed in Holland).  -- Ada remembering young Jeffrey 1. -- Jeffrey 2 comes to meet his brother to accompany him in his mercy killing.
IV The Mirror	Ada (mentioning Jeffrey 2; Hanako) older Jana younger Jana  Sarah Weber (played by Ada); a singer, Ada's mother Maurice, a magician	time/place: 1986/Hiroshima; 1943/Terezin -- Jana becomes a famous artist and has an exhibition in Tokyo; Ada invites her to Hiroshima [Ada is here with Jeffrey 2 after Jeffrey 1's death] -- 1943: Jana and Sarah's friendship in a concentration camp; Maurice's magic show; "Are all the people who have disappeared hiding behind mirrors?" p. 49 -- Sarah shows the kimono for Butterfly; tells the story of Butterfly and cries.  [Does she identify with Butterfly?] --Sarah's death.  -- Jana and Maurice's escape -- ending: Sarah = Nozome - Butterfly
V.  Words	Hanako Sophie-- an actress; her Quebecois consciousness p. 89 Francois-Xavier Walter -- Canadian diplomat in Osaka Patricia -- Walter's wife	time: 1970; place: Osaka -- photo booth and translator's booth -- play within the play -- Feydeau's The Lady of Maxim (pp. 64-69); Sophie's affairs with Francois-Xavier and Walter, too? (p. 96) -- phone booth -- 1. Sophie and Hanako p. 59-; 2. Sophie and Hanako p. 96-  -- photo booth -- 1. Walter and Patricia 60; 2. Hanako and Jeffrey 2 p. 77; 3. Francois-Xavier; 4. Sophie and Hanako p. 99--who is the father of Sophie's child? -- translator's booth -- translator appears on stage pp. 78-92; 96-99; translator's mistake p. 99
VI. An Interview	Jana,  Patricia,  Walter	time: 1995;  place: Hiroshima -- puppet show ('Loyang Beauty,' play within the play, told by Jana): a Chinese story set in Song Dynasty; the invention of gunpowder --the interview of Jana by Patricia--about how Jana chooses Hiroshima p. 106;  -- Walter and Patricia, with puppets, about the possibility of going to China;  -- Walter with Loyang beauty puppet; [suggesting Walter and Patricia's divorce] -- Walter witnessing 1997 Hong Kong
VII. Thunder	David: son of Hanako and Jeffrey 2 Pierre: son of Sophie and Walter(?) Walter; Hanako;
		time: 1997;  place: Hiroshima -- Walter takes Pierre to Hanako as a boarder -- the mentioning of Jeffrey 2's death p. 124 -- dream 1: Nozomi in kimono; 2. Nozomi and Luke, and then Pierre -- David back;  -- Hanako's 60-yr-old party p. 131 -- David and Pierre in the same room;  -- Hanako describing the garden; Pierre imitating Hanako -- the meeting of Walter, Ada, Pierre, David, Sophie and Hanako.  David and Pierre talk about their family; Sophie and Hanako about Pierre's father (Walter). -- Kimono dance: Pierre's dance with Hanako as the subject;  Hanako holds kimono for -- Pierre  Old Jana  holds kimono for -- Sarah Luke -- Nozomi Hanako -- Pierre -- the ending (spreading of Jeffrey 2's ashes); the beginning (Luke and his camera)

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