Inspired by the 1950 Akira Kurosawa film of the same name, Fay and Michael Kanin's Rashomon explores the human psyche's varied ways of processing information via an event told from four different perspectives. The story goes like this: A Samurai and his wife are accosted by the bandit on a road. He takes them into a clearing, ties the Samurai to a tree, has his way with the wife, and then murders the Samurai with his own sword. The bandit is ultimately caught and brought to court, where each eyewitness offers substantially different but equally plausible accounts of what happened, prompting the questions, What is truth, what is perception, what is illusion, and how much do our individual experiences affect the way we comprehend what is happening around us. USF's School of Theatre and Dance presents Rashomon beginning this weekend; assistant professor David Mann directs. April 7 and April 12-15, 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat., 3 p.m. Sun., USF-Tampa College of Visual and Performing Arts Theatre I, 4202 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa, $12 adults/$6 students and seniors, 813-974-2323, arts.usf.edu.
This article appears in Apr 4-10, 2007.