MEDIATHEK

Setting sail on a new voyage

An unprecedented atmosphere of opaque uncertainty surrounds us. If you try to dismiss it, or paralyse your mind, it stays with you like a second skin of anxiety and fear. You may feign unconcern, but you cannot stay disaffected for long, nor write it off as someone else's problem or a distant event beyond the television screen.

More people than you can possibly imagine are encountering a sense of crisis, struggling to find some way to come to terms with this condition. Some would speak of "an inexplicable helplessness", others of "a decay of intelligence". But no matter how thoughtfully the phrase is chosen, words fail us.

Under these circumstances, what could be more ridiculous than innocent "art activities"? Time and again we need to ask ourselves why we are still trying to express ourselves through the performing arts and why we should continue with our creative productions?

At times like this, we remember the words of Pina Bausch - something she once said about "a Turkish man whose aged mother always told him "Don't cry, sing!"

We have chosen not to verbalize or otherwise comment upon the circumstances that currently encompass us. We hope to reclaim true communication without relying on any verbal pretexts. But is performance a true substitute for such mutual resonance? Once again, we find ourselves questioning the very essence of performance.

/ CAST & CREDITS /

Conception, creation: dumb type

Creative members: Takayuki Fujimoto, Manna Fujiwara,Yuko Hirai, Ryoji Ikeda, Takao Kawaguchi, Seiko Ouchi, Hidekazu Maeda, So Ozaki, Noriko Sunayama, Shiro Takatani, Yoko Takatani, Mayumi Tanaka, Hiromasa Tomari, Misako Yabuuchi, Ichiro Awazu

Performers: Manna Fujiwara, Yuko Hirai, Takao Kawaguchi, Hidekazu Maeda, Seiko Ouchi, Noriko Sunayama, Mayumi Tanaka, Misako Yabuuchi, So Ozaki

Visual creation: Shiro Takatani, Takayuki Fujimoto, Hiromasa Tomari

Sound creation: Ryoji Ikeda

Stage Manager: So Ozaki

Video Assistant: Ichiro Awazu

Sound operator: Yoshihisa Fukuhara

Company Manager: Yoko Takatani

Acknowledgement: Noriko Kitamura (costume)

Production: dumb type

Production, touring: Epidemic

World premiere:

Centre de Développment Chorégraphique de Toulouse /

Midi-Pyrénées - TNT/Théâtre de la Cité /

Toulouse, France, 2002

Co-production:

Centre de Développement Chorégraphique de Toulouse

Theater Drama City, Osaka

Le-Maillon Théâtre de Strasbourg

Maison des Arts, Créteil

REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney / CalArts Theater), Los Angeles

Support:

Kyoto Art Center

Biwako Hall, Shiga

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