“Japan’s foremost contemporary theater company” –The Japan Times
After Japan’s great earthquake of 2011, a tsunami almost entirely demolished the region around the city of Rikuzentakata and thousands died. The city is now undergoing immense reconstruction to elevate the area as a countermeasure against future tsunami waves. Using local rocks to raise the land, however, has led to severe damage to surrounding mountains. In Eraser Mountain, Japanese director Toshiki Okada and visual artist Teppei Kaneuji question this human-centric approach to the problem and ask us to reimagine the relationships between people, objects, and the world.
chelfitsch was founded in 1997 by Toshiki Okada, who writes and directs all of its productions. The troupe is applauded for its unique use of language and physicality, and is widely considered, both inside and outside Japan, as one of the leaders of contemporary theater. It made its debut abroad with a performance of Five Days in March in 2007 and has since performed works in more than 70 cities around the world.
Teppei Kaneuji employs a collage-like approach in his practice through the use of everyday objects. Across a wide range of media such as sculpture, painting, video, and photography, he searches for sculptural “systems” that manifest the relationship between images and materiality. chelfitsch.net
Performed in Japanese with English supertitles. Recommended for ages 16+.
This project is supported in part by The Japan Foundation.
