VIE Scena Contemporanea Festival - We are the undamaged others

We are the undamaged others

Toshiki Okada

13/10/2010 , 21:00
14/10/2010 , 20:00

Direction: Toshiki Okada
Stage Director: Masaya Natsume
With: Taichi Yamagata, Shoko Matsumura, Mari Ando, Izumi Aoyagi, Riki Takeda, Yukiko Sasaki, Makoto Yazawa
Light: Tomomi Ohira
Sound: Norimasa Ushikawa
Production Manager: Akane Nakamura
Production assistant: Miwa Monden
Production: chelfitsch
Coproduction: AICHI TRIENNALE 2010 ; Noorderzon/Grand Théâtre Groningen ; Théâtre de Gennevilliers Centre Dramatique National de Création Contemporaine ;
Festival d’Automne à Paris
Supported by: Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan in the fiscal 2010; The Japan Foundation (Performing Arts Japan Program for Europe); Foundation for the study of Japanese Language and civilization under the aegis of Fondation de France; Fondation Franco-Japonaise Sasakawa; Season Foundation and Steep Slope Studio.

Performed in Japanese with italian subtitels

Running time: 1h 40 min

NATIONAL PREMIERE

Toshiki Okada and his company chelfitsch/Toshiki Okada pursue their chronicle of Japan’s contemporary life through intimate, seemingly ordinary stories. The couple in this new piece shows all signs of happiness, but their conversation betrays a deep anxiety. The actors’ moves are minutely choreographed, testifying to the way very simple acts can force us to consider highly theoretical questions.

Moving one step beyond the company's signature style, the use of so-called "hyper-colloquial Japanese and noisy corporeality," chelfitsch has continued to explore a new frontier of theatre. We Are the Undamaged Others is an outcome of our tireless endeavor to radically question and creatively update the foundational modes of modern dramatic representation.

The story takes place on August 29th and 30th, 2009, on the second day of which a general election for the lower house seats was held in Japan. Blurring the boundaries between action and narration, the direct and indirect discourses, the performers take turns representing the vague anxiety of a wealthy couple who are about to buy a condominium in a newly built high-rise. By teasing out the repressed realities of class divide in today's Japan, the performance interrogates the contemporary meaning of “happiness.” Okada makes a fairly minimal and uncannily repetitive use of simple language and boldly rejects a facile recourse to conventionalized bodily representation.

http://precog-jp.net

The show

Programme