We are delighted to announce the 2023/2024 Drama Season at the New National Theatre Tokyo.

4 Productions in Total

• "Shakespeare's dark comedies" Measure for Measure / All's Well That Ends Well
• TOKYO ROSE
• Dekalog
  

Message from Ogawa Eriko, Artistic Director of Drama

The 2023/2024 Drama Season at the New National Theatre Tokyo opens with Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and All's Well That Ends Well. The company that has presented Shakespeare's history plays at the NNTT since 2009 will gather again for a new endeavour starting in the autumn of 2023. The two plays are known as 'problem plays' which cannot be easily classified as traditional tragedy or comedy, and both works feature women as central characters who drive the plot forward, presenting a different perspective and charm from our past history play series. The company with over a decade-long history will stage these plays by casting each actor in both plays, performing the two works alternately, as two sides of the same coin.

Following the two plays, in December we will bring you TOKYO ROSE, the first musical production for the sixth production from our Full Audition Project. This is a brand new work, having premiered in the UK as recently as 2019. It tells the story of Iva Ikuko Toguri, an announcer during the Pacific War era known as "Tokyo Rose". Stripped of her identity and dignity by the war between her two home countries, this story of Iva falling victim to prejudice and discrimination arising from the difference between race and nationality is not a thing of the past but is real and relevant today. The cast of six women each plays the roles of Iva Ikuko Toguri as well as various other roles in this musical featuring powerful music and brimming with fresh possibilities.

In the spring of 2024, we are planning the unveiling of a new serial production in ten stories titled Dekalog, adapted from the series of ten drama television miniseries by Polish film director Krzysztof Kieslowski in the 1980s. When the original work was conceived in the mid-80s, martial law had just been lifted in Poland, and in Kieslowski's words, "There were clear signs of confusion, tension, despair and fear that things may get worse, and we could feel the anxiety spreading throughout the world". The director's feelings seem to echo the feelings of many people living in contemporary society today. Based on the motif of the Ten Commandments from the Old Testament of the Bible, Dekalog depicts the lives of the residents of a housing block and explores the themes of love and vulnerability with a universal point of view and a realistic eye for observation. The characters are portrayed as average neighbours who go about their daily lives, deliberating over every choice with the hope of moving in the right direction, and knowing what is right, but also being too weak to make that choice. The story observes people in their natural, imperfect state not with the intent to condemn but with the wish to believe. Though each of the ten episodes is independent, the characters share the same housing block, making this a single spectacular story divided into ten episodes.

We are also set to start the third season of the KOTSU-KOTSU Project. Miyoshi Juro's Yoru no Michizure, which previously had a closed trail-performance in the second session, will continue its development towards an opened trial-performances in a new KOTSU-KOTSU Project Studio Performance. Thēbai, from the second session, is also under preparation toward presentation in the theatre. We will also continue the Gallery Project and the theatre workshops for junior high and high school students, and plan to resume the theatre tours and in-person workshops, both of which were difficult to organize for the past three years.

Apart from taking on new challenges and making efforts to learn and improve, we hope to carry on with our regular activities, slowly, step by step.

We look forward to welcoming you to our 2023/2024 season at the New National Theatre Tokyo.