Seinendan Theatre Company (Japan)
Hirata Oriza
Sung Kiwoong, Sawita Diteeyont, Rody Vera, Cody Poulton, Chen Yen-Chun, Bryerly Long
Sugiyama Itaru
Hamazaki Kenji
Takeyoshi Koji
Kaizu Tadashi
Chen Yen-Chun
Tomiyama Takayuki
Mishima Shōko, Isaka Hiroshi
Sound: Senda Yūta, Sakurauchi Shomi
Nishimoto Aya
Masakane Aya
Saitō Haruka
Ōta Kumiko, Ni
Ōta Kumiko, Nishio Sachiko, Doi Mai, Kanazawa Akira
Produced by Seinendan, Agora Planning LTD, Komaba Agora Theater
Supported by Kinosaki International Arts Center (Toyooka)
Co-Produced by the Japan Foundation Asia Center
Yamauchi Kenji, Matsuda Hiroko, Nojima Mizuho, Nagano Umi, Chong Ami, Nakamura Mao, Bryerly Long, Satō Shigeru, Maehara Mizuki, Fujitani Miki, Asamura Kamilla, Kimura Tomoaki, Tada Naoto, Above, Members of Seinendan, Chen Hsin, Chao Hsin-I, Phatcharawan Khrueaphan, Kamolvasu Chutisamoot, Antonette Go, Mayen Estanero, Manjean Faldas, Baek Jongseung, Jeon Soo Ji
Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Tagalog, Korean, English, Russian with Polish and English subtites
1994
113 minutes
About the performance
Premiered in 1994, Tokyo Notes, is one of the most renowned works of Hirata Oriza and Seinendan. It depicts the gradual dissolution of family and human relations in modern society and has been highly acclaimed both in Japan and abroad. The story takes place in the lobby of an art museum in the near future. A major war is being waged in Europe. In front of the paintings evacuated from the war-torn areas, the visiting Japanese family members, friends and lovers endlessly continue fragmentary conversations about taking care of ageing parents, their future careers, love, inheritance and what not. Against the huge backdrop of war, it scrupulously portrays the Japanese people living their ordinary everyday lives, revealing a whole range of problems and crises of the modern society. This piece has been highly acclaimed at various international theatre festivals. Not just translated but adapted to each country’s landscape, these productions showed a new attempt of international collaboration and commonality of the Hirata’s theatre method. This production of Tokyo Notes – International Version is the compilation of all these productions, portraying Tokyo in the near future which transformed into a multicultural city and the challenges that people may face then. Seven languages are spoken on the stage, exhibiting the ultimate form of multilingual “simultaneous multiple conversational theatre.”
Seinendan Theatre Company
Seiendan was founded in 1982. Based in Komaba Agora Theater, the company has been pursuing a new theatrical style through the practice of Hirata’s “contemporary colloquial theater theory.” This theory has greatly influenced the Japanese theater scene since the 1990s. They also operate a unit called Seinendan Links, which provides young artists the opportunity to develop their skills, and has been producing a number of talented writers and directors. Seinendan started its international collaboration project in 1999. Since then, they have been presenting their shows in many theatre festivals such as Theater d’Automne, and toured numerous plays internationally in various countries. Since 2020, the company moved its base to Toyooka city in Hyōgo prefecture, and founded Ebara Riverside Theater. There they create and present plays, conduct workshops in local schools and institutions, organize a theater festival and run a children’s theater.
Director’s biography
Hirata Oriza
He is a playwright, director, president of Professional College of Arts and Tourism.
Leader of Seinendan. Artistic director of Ebara Riverside Theater and Komaba Agora Theater. Born in Tokyo in 1962. In 1995, Hirata won the 39th Kishida Kunio Drama Award with Tokyo Notes, in 2019 he won the 22nd Tsuruya Nanboku Drama Award with Nihon Bungaku Seisui Shi (The Rise and Fall History of Japanese Literature). In 2006, he won the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award. In 2011, France’s Ministry of Culture honored Hirata with the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. In recent years, he has been conducting international collaborations with different countries especially with France, and in 2016 he wrote and directed a play Stilles Meer – Silent Sea for the Hamburg State Opera.
