Thursday, February 10
Friday, February 11
Saturday, February 12
7:30 pm
Written & directed by Yoji Sakate
One of Japan’s most politically radical theater companies presents their award-winning play,
Yaneura (Attic). Set in Japan in the near future, this darkly comic collection of two dozen seemingly disparate episodes from playwright and director Yoji Sakate takes an incisive look at the recently growing social issue in Japan called
hikikomori. This term, which literally translates as “withdrawn,” refers to people whose obsessions or disconnects from society have led them to cocoon themselves in their rooms and refuse any contact with the outside world. All the scenes are performed in a claustrophobic 4-meter-wide set, just the size of an attic, or
yaneura. This explosive play winds through the weird, ridiculous and profound with wit and dark humor, exposing strange and intimate details from the secret underbelly of contemporary Japanese culture.
In Japanese with English subtitles.
Tickets: $35; Japan Society members $30.
