OKADA Toshiki’s re-creation of his 2004 masterpiece “Five Days in March” brings today’s Japan into focus

The driving force of Japanese contemporary theater, playwright, director and novelist OKADA Toshiki, had a seismic effect on the nation’s theater scene when his masterpiece “Five Days in March” — with its colloquial youth-culture slang and uncomfortable-looking, fidgeting actors — was world premiered in 2004 by his chelfitsch theater company in Tokyo, followed by frequent performances in more than 30 cities nationwide.

For this latest version, in 2017 OKADA auditioned actors in their twenties to create a new cast with whom he took the play around Japan and then to Europe and Brazil.

Just as it always did, the work still describes five days in March 2003 in Tokyo’s youth-culture mecca of Shibuya where some people are demonstrating against the Iraq war. On the other hand, a young man and woman who met at a music club in upscale Roppongi instead opt to spend three nights in a love hotel where they shut themselves away from society in one room while the world situation outside is changing from day to day.

This new version of the play will bring the current “real Japan” into focus by comparing it with those 2004 versions of how things were.

Presented by: The Japan Foundation (JF) (https://www.jpf.go.jp/e/​)

＜Performance Credits＞
Playwright, Direction: OKADA Toshiki
Performers: ASAKURA Chieko, ISHIKURA Riki, ITABASHI Yuri, SHIBUTANI Ayaka, NAKAMA Ayaka,
YONEKAWA Kou Leon, WATANABE Manami
Set Design: TORAFU ARCHITECTS
Technical Director: SUZUKI Koro
Lighting Director: OHIRA Tomomi (ASG)
Costume: FUJITANI Kyoko (FAIFAI)
English Translation: OGAWA Aya
Publicity Photography: COBAYASHI Kenta
Publicity Design: MAKI Jujiro

Presented by: KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre

Associated production: precog co.,LTD.
Supported by: The Agency of Cultural Affairs (Bunkacho)

Production: chelfitsch, KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre
Co-produced by: KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre, ROHM Theatre Kyoto, Kunstenfestivaldesarts
Additional Commissioning Support provided by Toyohashi Arts Theatre PLAT, Nagano City Arts
Center, Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
Residency Support: Toyohashi City, Toyohashi Arts Theatre PLAT
In Co-operation with Steep Slope Studio, Kinosaki International Arts Center
Recorded on December 6, 2017 at KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre, Large Studio

＜Subtitling Credits＞
Chinese Translation (Simplified): Xiaohui LIN
Chinese Translation (Traditional): Brainwoods Corporation, Ltd.
English Translation: OGAWA Aya
French Translation: Corinne ATLAN
German Translation: Andreas REGELSBERGER
Russian Translation: Lyudmila SAAKYAN
Portuguese Translation: 4ESTAÇÕES

＜Promotional Text＞
TANAKA Nobuko (English), KAWAZOE Fumiko (Japanese)

End date of distribution: 31/3/2022