ISLA! ISLA! ISLA!
OKAZAKI ART THEATRE
【Yokohama】2016. 2. 3 wed. ~ 8 mon. @STspot（TPAM show case）
Yudai Kamisato was born in Peru and brought up in Paraguay, the United States, and Japan (Kawasaki). He has relatives in many places - Okinawa, Hokkaido, Lima, and Nevada. Both playwright and director, he heads Okazaki Art Theatre in an environment marked by a multiplicity of cultures and languages. He continues to create plays with a focus on the various differences and backgrounds of people living in Japan as well as the lives of people who emigrate or are on the move.
This work contains an cluster of motifs wrapped around the core image of fictional islands whose various cultures, languages, and politics were brought in from the outside and set in motion conflict, fusion, and transformation. Two of these motifs are historical personages who hailed from what is now Japan's Kochi Prefecture: John Manjiro (1827 - 1898) and Koben Mori (1869 - 1945). The life of the former and the abiding interest in the world outside Japan on the part of the latter, who some speculated was the model for the protagonist of "Dankichi the Adventurer," a comic book series that was highly popular before World War Two, hold great meaning for contemporary Japan, which is marked by a prevalent lack of understanding of others and a deep exclusionary streak. As such, they are linked to the issue of "symbiosis with the other," a concern Kamisato has been exploring in recent years. Around the world, cities today are filled with immigrants, and our ability for symbiosis across boundaries of citizenship and nation is being tested. Please look forward to the world now being presented by the Okazaki Art Theatre through its probe of the "island" motif and symbiosis.
What did you drop in the river, a gold human or a silver human?
Was it an indigenous or foreign species?I fear you. One day you might skin me, auction off my hide, throw my flesh into the river, and use my eyeballs as jewelry. You might kill and burn my family. You might talk endlessly
at the bottom of the river clinging to your shameful past self, ignorant of language, cut off my nipples, and caress me smiling, like a civil servant. Endless games of pretend
and a wet curtain. Other divers might gaze upon us, grinning as you do with me whatever you wish. Using nonsense words, flailing your arms in nonsense ways.The 10,000 year-old alligator, tired of speaking, came ashore. It moved lazily, its back overgrown with moss. As it walked it drooled green and red. The afternoon sun was red and unrelenting. That’s when he arrived!
―an excerpt from ISLA! ISLA! ISLA!
Synopsis
The king of a fictional group of islands fires up the islanders for war. He emphasizes the efforts he has made to civilize the islands since he was washed up on their shores, and retraces the history of their transformation.
In time, various people came to the islands, bringing along their respective cultures, languages, and politics. Hakusaburo tries to develop trade in the their sugar cane. Cristóbal and Ranald arrive on a whaling ship. Townsend claims possession of the islands. As the number of immigrants increases and time accelerates, the king insists that he has made a new discovery. The islanders = soldiers do nothing but quiver, it being unclear whether or not they are listening to the king.
photo:Takuya Matsumi
Casts
Miho Inatsugu
Tomoko Shimazaki
Kimio Taketani
Shoko Matsumura
Hanako Wada
About
Okazaki Art Theatre
Founded in 2003 to stage works by playwright and director Yudai Kamisato. Their pieces evoke a unique atmosphere, creating works with the imagery, colors, and linguistic sensibility of the blazing South American sun and also the inorganic chaos of a newly constructed satellite town in Kawasaki. Desire Caught by the Tale won the Best Direction Award at the 7th Toga Director’s Competition (2006). Okazaki Art Theatre has performed at festivals in and outside Japan, including Festival Tokyo (2010-2012) , the Taipei Arts Festival (2012, Taiwan) and Sydney Festival (2016, Australia). Mr. Haircut (2009), Black Coffee (for People Who Can’t Drink It) (2013) and +51 Aviación, San Borjawere nominated for the Kunio Kishida Playwriting Prize.
About Director
Yudai Kamisato
Yudai Kamisato as director of Okazaki Art Theatre continues to explore people’s attitudes towards politics and society, and the coexistence of people who cannot understand one another. Following in the footsteps of his grandmother, who emigrated from Okinawa to Peru, Kamisato researched the current situations of South America and Okinawa for his new creation.
Incorporating elements of the life of his “Mexican Theatre father”, Seki Sano, who was active before the war, and died in a foreign country; Kamisato’s own choice to work in Japan, while adjusting to life as an immigrant; and the story of the entrepreneur Ryoichi Jinnai, who is currently supporting the community of people of Japanese descent in Peru and other countries of South America. This piece explores the concept of “homeland” through the stories of people who emigrated to foreign countries in the past and died overseas, and the stories of people currently living in foreign lands. This perspective of an observer also informs us about ourselves, living in contemporary Japanese society.
Archive
+51 Aviación, San Borja
2015
Yudai Kamisato as director of Okazaki Art Theatre continues to explore people’s attitudes towards politics and society, and the coexistence of people who cannot understand one another. Following in the footsteps of his grandmother, who emigrated from Okinawa to Peru, Kamisato researched the current situations of South America and Okinawa for his new creation.
Incorporating elements of the life of his “Mexican Theatre father”, Seki Sano, who was active before the war, and died in a foreign country; Kamisato’s own choice to work in Japan, while adjusting to life as an immigrant; and the story of the entrepreneur Ryoichi Jinnai, who is currently supporting the community of people of Japanese descent in Peru and other countries of South America. This piece explores the concept of “homeland” through the stories of people who emigrated to foreign countries in the past and died overseas, and the stories of people currently living in foreign lands. This perspective of an observer also informs us about ourselves, living in contemporary Japanese society.
Photo by Yuta Fukitsuka
2013
Of particular note is the long-winded and scathing monologue at the beginning, which brings up the incidents of anti-Korean "hate speech" causing a controversy in today's Japan. Blazing a new frontier in verbal artistic expression, it stirred great interest in the theatre world and various other quarters.
photo by Yuta Fukitsuka
2012
What are our criteria when we say, "The grass is always greener on the other side"? What do we know about our "neighbours"? In this new play Kamisato will build a dialogue and encounter with an unknown neighboring country, Korea, where he will do the creative preparatory work. Digesting the fear and confusion of such an "encounter", he will re-examine the relationships of self and other, homeland and foreign country, drawing a new portrait of Japan.［Festival Tokyo 2012 Main Program］
photo by Yuta Fukitsuka
2011
This play looks at a mysterious sensation and object of limitless anger, pathos, and fear. What do people think about, or are made to think about, when confronted by the hidden, the unknown?
［Festival Tokyo 2011 Main Program］
photo by Yuta Fukitsuka
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