After reading the outline and listening to the songs of “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots”, I have a vague idea of the world it is in. Analyzing it with Fuch’s questions helped me a lot to set a background to the performance.

The world of the play has two dimensions through which the story unfolds; reality and fantasy. The reality world has contained interior spaces which include an apartment, a hospital room or an office. The fantasy world has wide open supernatural post apocalyptic exterior spaces including fantastic version of the apartment or a battle ground. The time in this world feels linear but slowing down or fastening up from time to time. The time is marked by battles or by the progression of the cancer.

The mood in the reality world is sad, serious, delicate and dark. It is created through the colors, music and lights (hospital lights). The sound of the reality is ambulance sounds and the beeping sound of the heart monitor. The mood in the fantasy world is ambitious, hopeful in the beginning but grows more desperate throughout the performance. It is violent, passionate and extreme, the mood is portrayed by the movements, chaotic shapes and music. The sound of the fantasy is motor sounds of robots and destructive sounds.

The social structure of the world can be seen through the social classes that are portrayed in the performance which are the artists, the businessmen and the doctors. Success determines the power. The businessmen are looking down on the other classes.

I can imagine Booker who is a stock broker walking on stage in straight lines. Yoshimi who is an artist and suffers from cancer is frail and organic in the reality but strong and composed in the fantasy. Ben is walking heavier than all of the characters. In the fantasy world the main characters are always against a chaotic pattern of robots, it is them against the world. The clothes in reality are really boring, everything seems two dimensional and subtle. In the fantasy world the clothes are fantastic and get dirtier and darker towards the end.

Figures interact by having arguments in the reality and the language of the whole world is singing. In fantasy figures interact through actions. In reality the feelings that I have are desperation, fear, love, sadness and loss. In fantasy the feelings are courage, a drive to prevail and loss. The silent parts of the performance are where the events are occurring, the songs are where the feelings are being emitted and also when the time of the world slows down.

The first scene of the play is in a gallery and everyone is together celebrating the success of Yoshimi, the last scene is in a hospital room and everyone is mourning for Yoshimi’s defeat to cancer. The middle scene is in the fantasy battleground where Yoshimi is wounded in her leg and Ben carries her. It was important to pass through the middle because that’s where it is foreshadowed that Yoshimi is losing the battle and that Ben and she will end up together.

The space of the performance changes from fancy places to a hospital room. The time moves through Yoshimi’s cancer battle. The mood changes from insincerity, happiness, fakeness and hope to sincerity, sadness, realness and desperation. The thing that is not changing is the seriousness of cancer.

When I think about what this performance is expecting from me I immediately think of the last scene that is giving me the advice to cherish the loved ones because we are all mortal.

When I finally look at the characters, Yoshimi was blinded by success and had shallow feelings towards Booker but when she realized her mortality she instantly became more real so she returned to Ben in the end. Ben has always been loyal to Yoshimi (therefore the puppy jokes) and he is also an artist. Booker represents capitalism and the shallowness of success driven people.

My Concept

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is a story of internal personal battle with cancer.

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is a story of how internal personal battle with cancer can change your life and your mind.

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is a story of Yoshimi battling with cancer starting from diagnosis ending with her death. Throughout her journey she finds real love and gets rid of shallow people around her.