As part of this year’s Under the Radar Festival, Japan Society kicks off 2012 with a nine-day stage run of Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech and THE BEE now through Jan. 14 and 15.
Under the Radar is an annual theater festival that spotlights international artists ranging from emerging talents to masters in the field. The festival is a wild mix of works by ensembles, solo artists, writers and creators, offering a crash course in theater created by some of the most dynamic artists working today. In its seven year history, there have been 104 productions from over 17 countries.
“It means a lot for us to be able to present both Hideki Nodaʼs THE BEE and Toshiki Okadaʼs chelfitsch Theater Company in our first time participating in the Under the Radar Festival,” said Japan Society’s artistic director Yoko Shioya. “These shows truly illustrate whatʼs going on in Japanese experimental contemporary theater.”
Directed and co-written by celebrated director/playwright Hideki Noda, THE BEE mixes a manga-like frenzy with a chin-stroking nightmare in the revenge thriller, which electrified audiences and London’s theater community when it premiered at the Soho Theatre in 2006.
An Asahi Performing Arts Award Grand Prix and Yomiuri Theater awards Grand Prize winner, THE BEE tells the tale of an ordinary Japanese businessman who turns savage after his wife and son are taken hostage by an escaped convict. When the police fail to help and a media circus ensues, the businessman visits the kidnapper’s wife to beg for assistance. What happens next is unthinkable. Co-produced with the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, London’s Soho Theatre and NODA・MAP, this production features Kathryn Hunter, Glyn Pritchard, Clive Mendus and Hideki Noda. Within a minimalist set and eerily beautiful soundtrack, the four castmembers seamlessly shift between characters. (THE BEE is performed in English. Jan. 11-12 performances include Japanese subtitles.)
Founded in 1997 by writer/director Toshiki Okada, the internationally acclaimed chelfitsch Theater Company unveils the New York premiere of Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and The Farewell Speech. Presented in Japanese with English subtitles, the production stars Taichi Yamagata, Riki Takeda, Mari Ando, Saho Ito, Kei Namba and Fumie Yokoo.
“In Toshiki Okadaʼs play, characters avoid intimate and meaningful exchanges,” Shioya said. “In counterpoint, Hideki Nodaʼs plays always contain one or more eccentric characters full of enormous, almost overwhelming, emotions and energy. Yet, there is a common theme that these artists and their plays illustrate: the deeply rooted tendencies surrounding communication in Japanese society. While the exterior of Japanʼs communication is tremendously polite and kind, beneath the surface, in Okadaʼs world, apathy is ingrained, while in Nodaʼs world, any event may trigger an eruption of previously suppressed emotion.”
On the afternoon of Jan. 14, Okada himself leads an intensive workshop for choreographers, dancers and physical theater artists. For this one-time special event (capped at just 15 attendees), the auteur will showcase his characteristic theater techniques to expand the conventional vocabularies of theater and dance, inviting patrons to join him Under the Radar.
Performances of the chelfitsch Theater Company and THE BEE run through Jan. 14 and 15 at Japan Society (333 East 47th Street between First and Second Avenues). Click hyperlinks for showtimes and tickets.
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