Asami Nagai Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
Pilots were there. So were politicians and bureaucrats,
including Construction and Transportation Minister Chikage
Ogi. The documentary-style play Charlie Victor Romeo, which
depicts the real-life struggles for survival in the cockpits
of six airplanes involved in airline accidents, has attracted
a wide variety of spectators to The Suzunari theater in Tokyo
since it opened on July 26.
The buzz about the play has spread like wildfire by word of
mouth. Earlier this week, the 170-seat venue in Shimokitazawa
was packed with 222 spectators, the overflow sitting in
temporary seats or standing in the aisles--giving a
resemblance of the economy cabin of a particularly full
airplane.
The drama is based on the actual transcripts from six
airline emergencies that occurred between 1985 and 1996. This
theatrical documentary was made possible by the 30-minute
tapes left by the cockpit voice recorder (CVR).
Charlie Victor Romeo premiered in New York in 1999, in a
small theater, but it soon began to attract an audience. Bob
Berger, founding member of the artist group Collective:
Unconscious, read a book on CVR transcripts and came up with
the idea for the theatrical documentary. Together with two
other members, he conceived, produced, directed and starred in
the experimental play.
The surprisingly long-running play, named after the
phonetic alphabet representation for CVR, has even been used
for educational purposes in the U.S. Air Force.
The Japanese production was planned in conjunction with
Tokyo-based production company Ame Arts and theater company
Ginkorin.
Yoji Sakate, director of Ginkorin, happened to see the
performance in Minneapolis last May, and instantly felt the
urge to bring it to Japan. "It was unique and experimental,"
Sakate said. "From the beginning, I was determined to work
with the original staff." As he had hoped, three of the
original directors came to Japan and Sakate joined them to
become the fourth director.
As in the original production, each episode is introduced
with a black-and-white slide, on which flight data and the
suspected cause of the accident are written in English, and
ends with another slide that describes the aftermath of each
case, written in Japanese.
Onstage, a dark set faces the audience. When the lights
come up, the audience is looking into a cockpit from the front
of the plane. The actors mostly remain seated while reenacting
the chilling incidents, just as if they were the real pilots.
The play starts off gently enough, with the crash of
American Airlines Flight 1572, an accident that claimed no
lives, either among crew or passengers. But from that point
on, the play turns tragic, with massive deaths marked by an
earsplitting roar.
The accident with the largest number of casualties featured
in the play was the crash of a Japan Airlines plane, in which
520 people were killed--only four survived.
"JAL 123 depicts a classical tragedy," Berger said. "The
grace, power and the courage (of the crew members) was
incredibly human."
In the Japanese production, the JAL episode was extended to
18 minutes from the original four.
On Aug. 12, 1985, a Boeing 747 left Tokyo for Osaka. Around
6:25 p.m., the crew experienced mechanical problems.
The captain and copilot try to pull up, and then lower, the
nose of the plane.
"Do we put on masks?" the copilot asks.
"Yes, it would be better," the captain replies.
The pilots continue to struggle with the plane, and after a
few minutes, an announcement by a flight attendant is heard:
"Those passengers who accompany babies, please keep your heads
on seat backs and hold your babies firmly," adding even more
pathos to the upcoming tragedy.
Later on, the captain mutters: "It may be hopeless. It is a
mountain."
He continues to talk to his copilot, and probably to
himself. "Raise nose. It is a mountain. Control to right.
Right turn, raise nose. We may hit the mountain."
Following the depiction of the doomed JAL flight, the last
episode begins with an unusual figure, clad in civilian
clothes. He is an off-duty captain seated in first class on a
United Airlines flight.
When trouble strikes, he volunteers to help the captain of
the flight, whose calm and professional attitude was
impressive. Grey-haired Kenjiro Kawanaka played Capt. Al
Haynes, who saved 185 people. Unfortunately, 111 perished in
the accident.
The play, due to its nature, is full of airline jargon.
Conversations between crew members and controllers are often
hard to understand.
But some messages come through clearly. "When the airline
crews are working together to try to solve their problems,
people should be reminded of their own workplaces," Sakate
said, because we all face emergencies of varying degree at
work.
"Our efforts will be rewarded if the audience gives more
thought to safety and works harder to prevent accidents. We
have to understand that it might be costly, but the extra
money and more task forces are a must for those efforts."
The U.S. production was praised by a retired navy pilot and
Northwest Airlines captain, who lauded the accuracy of the
sound effects. According to him, the sounds were technically
correct, even down to the various audio cockpit warnings,
different for each type of aircraft. He added that he highly
recommended the play to anyone in the aviation community.
Sakate said that he has received offers for additional
performances, but he is very cautious in selecting venues,
considering carefully the potential audiences.
"Family members of victims did come to see this play,"
Sakate said. "Some people might be angry because they accuse
us of turning the tragedy into entertainment, and making money
off of it. But if they come to see the play, they will fully
understand the drama's true nature."
Unlike his U.S. counterparts, who have been actively
involved in making educational tools out of the drama, Sakate
shows little interest in that. "I am trying to tell people
about the efforts of professionals in emergencies. Period."
"Charlie Victor Romeo" will be staged today and tomorrow at
The Suzunari theater in Shimokitazawa,Tokyo, at 2 p.m. and 7
p.m. A limited number of seats may be available at the door.
(03) 3426-6294
