Description

In a puppet show for adults inspired by Japanese Bunraku theater, playwright and director Satoko Ichihara reinterprets the old legend of the “Blind Weakling” (Shuntokumaru). While in the original story children are abandoned, sick people are discriminated against, and ultimately everyone is redeemed, Ichihara goes far beyond the tragic tale of good and evil. She confronts us with the question of what happens when social taboos such as incest and pedophilia are transferred to dolls.

Ichihara replaces traditional bunraku dolls with sex dolls, mannequins, and other creatures that embody desire and violence. As narrator, called Gidayu in Bunraku, actress Sachiko Hara guides us through the story. Experimental musician Kakushin Nishihara combines traditional satsuma biwa sounds, noise and electronic music to create an extraordinary composition. Together they drive the story forward, mediate between worlds and bring the puppets to life.

*The description is from Theater der Welt 2023 website.

Synopsis

A room in an apartment in rural Japan. A couple lives there. The husband's job is a　traffic controller. He stands all day long and endures verbal abuse from passers-by, telling himself he is a puppet. His wife wanted children. One day, a little boy is born to them. The family lives happily, but soon the wife reaches the end of her life.

The father brings in a stepmother newly. The stepmother is kind at first, but one day she gets into an argument with the father and stabs the boy with a knife. Blind and abandoned, the boy meets someone and starts working with the person, however...

Cast & Credit

Direction, Writing: Satoko Ichihara
Narrator: Sachiko Hara
Music, Biwa: Kakushin Nishihara
Puppeteers: Mikiko Kawamura, Terunobu Osaki, Ryota Hatanaka, Seira Nishihara

Music coordination: Kenichi Iijima
Stage design: Tomomi Nakamura
Stage design support: Ryo Sakamoto
Light: Rie Uomori (kehaiworks), Hitomi Kiuchi
Sound: Takeshi Inarimori
Movie: Kotaro Konishi, Kosuke Katakura
Costume: Hanaka Kiki, Natsuki Oku
Doll creation: Eri Fukasawa, Yosuke Sato, Yuna Yoshida, Kenichiro Okonogi, Mugiho Sasaki
Doll creation support: Mika Kan
Translation & surtitles: SPRACHSPIEL, Sachi Abe
Stage version by: Lucie Ortmann and Sachiko Hara
Stage Manager: Daijiro Kawakami
Production Coordinator: Makiko Yamazato

Artist Profile

Satoko Ichihara, born in Osaka and raised in Fukuoka, is a playwright, director, novelist, and Artistic Director of the Kinosaki International Arts Center (KIAC). She has directed the theater company Q since 2011. Her plays are concerned with human behavior, with bodies and the unease that surrounds them. She received the Aichi Arts Foundation Drama Award in 2011. Her adaptation of ‘The Bacchae’ (2019) won the 64th Kishida Kunio Playwriting Prize. In 2021, she co-produced ‘Madama Butterfly’ with the Theater Neumarkt in Zurich.

For Inquires:
The Museum of Art, Kochi
353-2 Takasu, Kochi city, Kochi prefecture 781-8123
Tel　088-866-8000　FAX　088-866-8008