Seinendan Theater Company: The Yalta Conference & Ronin Office Ladies

Thursday – Saturday, March 23 – 25
7:30 pm

A Double Bill of One-acts from the Company’s Conference Series. Written & directed by Oriza Hirata.

“The effect of the Japanese playwright Oriza Hirata’s dialogue can be as transfixing as a glimpse of human tissue under a microscope.”

– Pamela Renner, The New York Times

A shocking acerbic black comedy, The Yalta Conference is based on the infamous meeting of the “Big Three” (Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt) during World War II, often cited as the beginning of the Cold War as the three allies discussed Europe’s postwar reorganization. Insightful, imaginative, and shockingly tongue-in-cheek, this play takes a spin on the world’s postwar history of the past 60 years with non-stop banter and a unique perspective. In Ronin Office Ladies (OL Chushingura) a cast of disgruntled “office ladies” heatedly discuss the shifting personnel structure within their workplace in a modern-day corporate lunchroom. This comic play is a spoof on the classic story Chushingura, about 47 samurai plotting vengeance in the name of loyalty, originally scripted for Japanese traditional puppet theater in the 18th century.

One of the most renowned contemporary theater companies in Japan, Seinendan Theater Company was founded by writer/
director Oriza Hirata in 1983. Hailed by The New York Times as “transfixing,” the works of Seinen-dan have come to be known as distinctively Japanese.

In Japanese with English subtitles.

Tickets: $35/$30 Japan Society members.