発信箱：彼女の恩返し＝滝野隆浩

(Mainichi Japan) November 23, 2011
One-person play by actress brings voices of disaster victims to wider audience
発信箱：彼女の恩返し＝滝野隆浩

When I saw a one-person play about earthquake and tsunami evacuees by actress "mic" during a charity event this past summer, I felt my spirits lightened.
　東日本大震災のチャリティーイベントでこの夏、ｍｉｃさんのひとり芝居を見た。悲しいテーマなのに、どうしてだろう。見終わった時、心が軽くなった。

The actress played the roles of three disaster victims -- elderly and middle-aged women who lost their homes to the tsunami that followed the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and a fisherman who had resolved to continue his work.
芝居は避難所で出会った３人が彼女に話しかけるというスタイル。津波で家を失ったおばあさんとおばさん、それに漁師を続けていくことを決めたおじさん。

The play was held at an evacuation shelter on the Oshika Peninsula in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, one month after the disasters.
　震災から１カ月後、宮城県石巻市・牡鹿半島にボランティアに出かけた。

Though the ways the three speak is stooped in sorrow, their Tohoku dialect always sounds gentle.
語り口には絶望的な悲しみが宿る。それでも方言は限りなく優しい。

"mic, don't hesitate to come back here when things are hard," one of them said.
「ｍｉｃさーん、つらくなったら帰っておいでー」

The three are not fictional characters.
　３人は「架空の人」ではない。

The actress says she reproduced the words of three people she actually met at a shelter.
それぞれの言葉を丁寧に再現した。彼女は「ノンフィクション」だという。

In a survey after the performance, many members of the audience said they felt they had directly heard voices of the disaster-hit residents that are not reported by news organizations.
終演後のアンケートでは「テレビやニュースで聞けない現地の生の声を生で聞けた」といった声が多かった。

Even though the play was done by one person, the dialogue seemed to the audience like the disaster victims' real voices.
本当は「生の声」ではないのに、そう聞こえてしまう。

About 10 years ago, mic was in a car accident and fought for her life.
１０年ほど前、車の助手席で事故にあった。命にかかわる大事故。

It happened after she had made up her mid to be an actress following her graduation from university.
In her mind, the massive damage that the disasters caused to many people in the Tohoku region may have shared similarities with her harrowing experience a decade ago.
大学を出たあと役者になろうと決意したその時に起きた理不尽なできごとと、大津波がもたらした不条理さが、どこかで重なったのかもしれない。

"I was so shaken (after the March disasters), I couldn't do my job at all," mic recalls.
「いても立ってもいられませんでした。仕事なんて、とてもやっていられなかったんです」。

While repeatedly visiting the evacuation shelter where the three were staying, their lives took root in her mind as a story.
二度三度同じ避難所にいくうちに、３人の生き方が体の中でストーリーになっていった。

Furthermore, the actress's parents' home in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, was damaged by the Great Hanshin Earthquake in January 1995.
　兵庫県西宮市の実家は阪神大震災で被災した。

She says her mother says, "I never forget the taste of boiled potatoes I got from volunteers at the time."
母親は「あの時いただいた芋煮の味が忘れられない」と今でも思い出すらしい。

Those volunteers were from the Tohoku region.
東北から来たボランティアの鍋だった。

The actress will perform the play at a hall in Kobe on the evening of Nov. 26.
今月２６日夜に、神戸市内の勤労会館で再演が決まった。

She believes that Kobe residents will understand the feelings of evacuees from the Oshika Peninsula, and hopes that she can return the favor to Tohoku people for extending relief to Kobe quake victims 16 years ago.
神戸の人には、牡鹿半島の人の思いが伝わると信じている。１６年前の恩返しになればいい。

Proceeds from 3,000-yen admission fees for her Kobe performance will be fully donated to disaster-hit areas.
入場料３０００円は全額、被災地に寄付される。

(By Takahiro Takino, Tokyo City News Department)
（社会部）

毎日新聞　2011年11月16日　東京朝刊