Duration: 66'
Full: 30 TL Discount: 20 TL
In this triptych of related short plays, communication is not as smooth as silk: words are out of synch with gestures and each office worker seems to be dancing to his/her own drummer! Tokyo-based theater company chelfitsch led by the writer and director Toshiki Okada depicts in his signature style of humorous cynicism the “selfishness” of a generation in Japan.
Toshiki Okada is a playwright who has won acclaim for the language in his plays that has been described as “super-real” verbal Japanese for the way the characters speak in abbreviated sentences that are little more than a succession of conjunctions without verbalized subjects, like fragments from the conversations of private life. The performances he presents with chelfitsch are characterized by unique body language that has even become the object of attention from the contemporary dance world. (Interview Hirofumi Okano, Performing Arts Network Japan website.)
Playwright and Direction: Toshiki Okada | Premiere: 2009 (Hebbel Am Ufer, Berlin) | Performers: Taichi Yamagata, Riki Takeda, Mari Ando, Saho Ito, Kei Namba, Izumi Aoyagi | Stage manager: Koro Suzuki | Lighting director: Tomomi Ohira | Sound director: Norimasa Ushikawa | Producer: Akane Nakamura | Production Manager: Tamiko Ouki | Production: chelfitsch, Tokyo | Co-production: Hebbel am Ufer/HAU, Berlin | Associate Production: precog, Tokyo | Supported by: Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan in the fiscal 2012 | Special thanks: Steep Slope Studio
Toshiki Okada (playwright/director; 1973, Yokohama) founded the theater company chelfitsch in 1997. Since then he has written and directed all of the company's productions, practicing a distinctive methodology for creating plays, and has come to be known for his use of hyper-colloquial Japanese and unique choreography. In 2005, his play Five Days in March won the prestigious 49th Kishida Drama Award. Okada participated in Toyota Choreography Award 2005 with Air Conditioner (Cooler) (2005), garnering much attention. In September 2005, Okada won the Yokohama Cultural Award/Yokohama Award for Art and Cultural Encouragement. As the representative of his country, he took part in Stuecke'06 International Literature Project and in December of the same year, he presented Enjoy at New National Theatre, Tokyo. He has also served as the director for the 2006-07 Summit, an annual drama festival hosted by the Komaba Agora Theater (General producer, Oriza Hirata). In February of 2007, his collection of novels The End of the Special Time We Were Allowed debuted and was awarded the Kenzaburo Oe Prize.
