A Japan-France collaboration by the T2G Théâtre de Gennevilliers and IWAI Hideto

The 46-year-old playwright, director and actor, and founder of his Tokyo-based Hi-bye theater company, IWAI Hideto, often draws on his life experiences in creating his works — including his youth as a social recluse and his troubled family relationships.

In 2018, IWAI was invited by the Festival d’Automne à Paris to create a play based on the life stories of four amateur and three professional French actors aged from 20-plus to 82 he could select by audition during visits to the Gennevilliers suburb in northwestern Paris that is home to many immigrant families and their children.

Afterward, during extended stays there he put together this beautiful piece of moving human drama by carefully picking out episodes in his actors’ lives — such as one person’s story about being able to make ghosts appear ever since his mother died when he was 4, and a Moroccan immigrant’s account of plunging into a labor dispute to improve working conditions.

First performed as part of Japonismes 2018 in conjunction with Festival d’Automne à Paris

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

＜Performance Credits＞
Conceived and directed by: IWAI Hideto (http://hi-bye.net/english​ )(Associate Artist of T2G- Théâtre de Gennevilliers)
Cast: Marion BARCHÉ, Salima BOUTEBAL, Lucienne LARUE, Michel LARUE, Mathieu MONTANIER, Abdallah MOUBINE, Loic CARCASSES
Text: Marion BARCHÉ, Salima BOUTEBAL, Lucienne LARUE, Michel LARUE, Mathieu MONTANIER, Abdallah MOUBINE, IWAI Hideto
Artistic collaboration: HARIMA Aiko
Set and costume design: YAMAMOTO Kie
Assistant costume design: Gwendoline GRANDJEAN
Light: Juliette BESANÇON
Sound: Margaux ROBIN
Video: KOS-CREA
Interpretation and French Translation: Aurélien ESTAGER
Japanese Translation: FUJIMOTO Satoko
Organized by: The Japan Foundation (https://www.jpf.go.jp/e/​), T2G-Théâtre de Gennevilliers
(https://theatredegennevilliers.fr/​ )
Coorganized by: Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture), Festival d’Automne à Paris
In cooperation with: quinada
With support from Fondation Franco-Japonaise Sasakawa

＜Subtitling Credits＞
Chinese Translation (Simplified): Zican LIU
Chinese Translation (Traditional): NITTA Yukio
English Translation: Steve CORBEIL
Japanese Translation: FUJIMOTO Satoko
Korean Translation: Hong-i LEE
Portuguese Translation: 4ESTAÇÕES
Russian Translation: Elena KARASSEVA

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

End date of distribution: 31/3/2022