We are pleased to announce that 'New Plays: Japan', staged readings will be presented at the Royal Court Theatre in London, U.K., from Thursday 26 - Saturday 28 January 2023. Three brand new Japanese plays, which were developed out of the Royal Court Theatre × New National Theatre, Tokyo Playwrights' Workshop will be staged in translation as a script-in-hand performance.

The Royal Court Theatre holds workshops for playwrights around the world. The New National Theatre, Tokyo joined hands with the Royal Court Theatre in bringing these workshops to Japan for the first time. Young Japanese playwrights participated in workshops led by the Royal Court Theatre's Associate Director, Literary Manager and a British playwright. The participants developed new plays through the three-phased workshops held from May 2019 through February 2021, experimenting with new techniques introduced in the workshops.

The series will include Not Yet Midnight (真夜中とよぶにはまだはやい) by KOTAKA Tomoko, Onigorou Valley (その先、鬼五郎渓谷につき、) by CHIBA Saori and 28 hours 01 minute (28時01分) by MATSUMURA Shoko.

The week of performances will include a panel discussion with all three writers on Friday 27th January and an omnibus of all three plays on Saturday 28th January.

Co-production with New National Theatre Tokyo
Supported by British Council

Details of Plays

• Not Yet Midnight ( 真夜中とよぶにはまだはやい )

  Written by KOTAKA Tomoko
  translated by SUZUKI Sayuri

  A night time power cut opens up moments of pause across one city. Three office workers are interrupted with their hands in the till. In a playground, a young couple begins to unravel. And a shop clerk tries and fails to move her last customer on.
  
  

• Onigorou Valley ( その先、鬼五郎渓谷につき、 )

  Written by CHIBA Saori
  translated by Susan Momoko HINGLEY

  When two decontamination workers take a drive up into the hills above Fukushima, they enter an uneasy world governed by legend and forces beyond the human. A supernatural folk horror set in the deep woods of Onigorou Valley, seven years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
  
  

• 28 hours 01 minute ( 28時01分 )

  Written by MATSUMURA Shoko
  translated by SUZUKI Sayuri

  Aoji is expecting her first baby. She wakes in the night. Her neighbour Uso calls round with an orange. And so begins a strange sequence of events that will test and shape her idea of what it is to be a mother.
  
  
  

Schedule

• Thursday 26th January (Double Bill)

7.00pm - Onigorou Valley ... and 28 hours 01 minute

• Friday 27th January

7.00pm - Not Yet Midnight and Panel Discussion with all three writers and the NNTT Artistic Director of Drama OGAWA Eriko

• Saturday 28th January

4.00pm - Not Yet Midnight
6.00pm - 28 hours 01 minute
8.00pm - Onigorou Valley

For further information and tickets, please visit the websites.

About The Royal Court Theatre

The Royal Court Theatre is the writers' theatre. It is a leading force in world theatre for cultivating and supporting writers - undiscovered, emerging and established. Through the writers, the Royal Court is at the forefront of creating restless, alert, provocative theatre about now. We open our doors to the unheard voices and free thinkers that, through their writing, change our way of seeing.
Over 120,000 people visit the Royal Court in Sloane Square, London, each year and many thousands more see our work elsewhere through transfers to the West End and New York, UK and international tours, digital platforms, our residencies across London, and our site-specific work. Through all our work we strive to inspire audiences and influence future writers with radical thinking and provocative discussion. The Royal Court's extensive development activity encompasses a diverse range of writers and artists and includes an ongoing programme of writers' attachments, readings, workshops and playwriting groups.
Twenty years of the International Department's pioneering work around the world means the Royal Court has relationships with writers on every continent.
Since 1956 we have commissioned and produced hundreds of writers, from John Osborne to Jasmine Lee-Jones. Royal Court plays from every decade are now performed on stage and taught in classrooms and universities across the globe.
We're now working to the future and are committed to becoming a carbon net zero arts venue throughout 2020 to ensure we can continue to work for generations of writers and audiences to come.
It is because of this commitment to the writer and our future that we believe there is no more important theatre in the world than the Royal Court.
The International Programme at the Royal Court builds and develops the theatre's relationships with writers and artists from around the world. We form long term partnerships with theatre makers and organisations from different traditions, working in different languages and cultural contexts. Our aim is to support writers to bring their practice, dramaturgy and perspective to the work they make with the Royal Court. We host a year round residency programme for international writers at the Royal Court, run long term writers' groups and exchange projects with partners around the world and produce work by international artists on our stages. The Programme also seeks to support the practice of theatre in translation and emerging translators.

For more information, please visit the websites.