A Forrest Full of Charm: A Review of the First Ever Stage Adaptation of Forrest Gump

           This is the first time that Forrest Gump was adapted for the stage and I was very fortunate to secure a ticket to see it with a good seat. Last June 8, 2014, I got to watch the matinee show of Forrest Gump at the Globe Theater. The play was topbilled by famous Johnny’s idol and KAT-TUN member Junnosuke Taguchi in the title role. This is Taguchi’s first ever starring role in a stage play. He was joined by other famous actors such as Aki Maeda (Jenny), Hitomi Takahashi (Forrest’s Mother) and Masahiro Takashima (played seven characters including Lietutenant Dan). It was produced and written by G2 who is known for other high-quality stage productions in Tokyo.

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Forrest Gump was originally a novel written by Winston Groom in 1986 and was turned into a movie in 1994 with Tom Hanks in the lead role.  The story revolves around the life of Forrest Gump who has a relatively low IQ as compared to other people. Out of such condition blossomed the naivite of a child and the purity of his heart that led him to great lengths – getting into college and playing for the rugby team, meeting two American presidents, joining the US Army, having a medal honor for saving his colleagues during the Vietnam War, and becoming an astronaut just to name a few.

 

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Highlights of the Play

It has very smooth transitions and props-change. For a play that has a very long and complicated timeline – starting from Forrest’s childhood up to the time that he becomes an adult – transitions are very difficult to pull off. The play also happens in different settings that require proper establishment of environment and milieu. The life of Forrest is told with a lot of historical events in the background starting from 1944 to 1986 such as the assassination of Kennedy, the Watergate Scandal, the Vietnam War, and the hippie counterculture. The stage props are not grand but enough to establish a particular setting. They’re simple, easy to move and very practical. The best part I have to say is when they staged the part where Forrest and Liuetant Dan are at sea, trying to catch some shrimps, when they encounter a strong storm that almost sinks their ship. The construction of the scene is quite simple. A blue cloth was put to cover the whole stage, and a small elevated platform was set in the middle to serve as the boat. At the four corners of the stage, there were people waving the blue cloth to create the image of waves. The lighting on stage, hitting the blue cloth created a beautiful imagery of ocean waves. It is not real but it gives you the right feel.

The live music adds a certain vibe to the show. All the music played within the whole show was actually played live. The musicians who played the keyboard, the violin and other instruments, also played supporting roles in the show. Sometimes they would play their instruments on the side, but on another time, they would leap on stage and throw some lines. This is a clever way of creating more people on stage. For a play like this, there are a lot of “extra people” needed to play as friends, classmates, rallyists, soldiers or other random people who do not have names but just need to be on stage to make a populated scene look more credible. Using actors as instrumentalists and vice versa is a clever idea to maximize the potential of the cast.

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Another strong point is Taguchi’s live playing of the harmonica. I was surprised at how well he could actually do it with just about four months of learning it. I am no music expert, but when I listen to it, sometimes, I feel like, some notes are wavering a little, but not so bad as to distract you from the beautiful music. For me, it is believable. He plays the harmonica like someone who does it as a hobby.

Though I like the live music so much, sometimes, I feel like it is not very consistent. There were some scenes that make give me the pseudo-musical feel, but then this feel was not sustained for the whole show. There was a scene showing Taguchi and his classmates singing and dancing in class, and a few ones with Jenny singing on stage with the new band that she had just joined. There is an incorporation of live music played on stage and off stage, which I like, but I would have preferred more on stage. I understand though that this play was written not as a musical so I can actually forgo this minor point. More so, the beautiful music of the violin and the harmonica overpowered my disappointment.             

            The imagery of the opening and the last scene created a perfect circle. I like how the play started and ended, basically because they happened in the same setting. The play opened with a scene with Forrest and his famous bench and it ended with him in the same place, but with Jenny and their little son. For me, the imagery created a full circle in the life of Forrest, from being a kid to growing up, losing Jenny and finding her again, from little Forrest to having Forrest Jr.

Best Scenes

            As I have mentioned earlier, the part when Forrest and Liutenant Dan are at sea is very good and heartwarming for me, not only because the scene is so beautiful with the blue cloth and the lighting on stage, but also because it is the part where Liutenant Dan finally realizes that he should be thankful to Forrest for saving his life in Vietnam.It is not too sentimental, not too dramatic, it has just the right emotions for me. But another good part is the ending. At the end of the play, the whole theater dimmed and small lights lighted up on stage like stars in the sky. Forrest delivered again the lines that he first said in the opening scene. The scene is so peaceful, seeing it as the last image of the whole play creates a light, heartwarming feel as you exit the theater. 

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Junnosuke Taguchi as Forrest Gump

            Taguchi is a very charming Forrest Gump – too charming, actually. This is a double standard though, it can either work for or against the production depending on what the audience is looking for. I am sure that there are other more experienced actors who can play Forrest better than Taguchi, but he put some of his own flavor in the character. His acting is sometimes theatrical, yet not contrived; very light and easy on the eyes; very smooth and amusing to see. Taguchi owned the role of Forrest. This is not the Forrest that I am expecting to see on stage when I entered the theater. I am expecting a different kind of Forrest, probably because I already have an image of another Forrest on my mind. But the thing is, Taguchi created his own version of Forrest Gump – the iriguchi-deguchi-taguchi-Gump if I may say. It is the overwhelmingly charming, lighthearted, beautiful Forrest. He may not be the best actor who can play the role, but he made a way to claim a particular version of Forrest as his own – enough to make me respect him more as an actor.

Note: Usually, when Taguchi introduces himself he says, "Iriguchi, Deguchi, Taguchi desu!" It literally means "Entrance, Exit, I'm Taguchi!" (^_^)