Entertainment Jun. 18, 2011 - 05:30AM JST ( 6 )

TOKYO —

Actress Ryoko Yonekura, 35, attended a red carpet event to launch the stage drama “Gone With the Wind” at Tokyo’s Imperial Garden Theater this week.

Yonekura plays the indomitable plantation owner’s daughter Scarlett O’Hara. Opposite her, Yasufumi Terawaki, 49, is the dashing Rhett Butler. The original 1939 movie, by Margaret Mitchell, was directed by Victor Fleming and starred Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. It has become an American classic.

Yonekura appeared with four of the other main cast members on the red carpet to celebrate the arrival of the play in Tokyo after its run in Osaka. “We’re finally here!” she said.

When asked if she was as passionate in real life as Scarlett, Yonekura replied, “Not at all. Performing this play takes a lot out of you, so when I go home after the show, I don’t want to meet anyone.”

Terawaki told the press, “This play really makes you feel the power of a human’s desire and will to live. Since we’re trying to boost Japan’s spirits following the tsunami, I’d really like as many people as possible to come and see this show.”

“Gone With the Wind” runs from Saturday until July 10 at the Imperial Garden Theater in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward. Also starring in the play are Jun Shibuki, 42, as Melanie Wilkes and Koki Okada, 45 as Ashley Wilkes.

Compiled from news reports