Metamorphosis of a Living Room
Japan
chelfitsch & Dai Fujikura with SYMPHONIC ARMONIA
- Director Toshiki Okada
- Genre Theatre
- Date 11.1.Sat. 7:00pm 11.2.Sun. 7:00pm
- Language Japanese
- Accessibility Korean subtitle, English subtitle
- Conversation with Artists 11.1.Sat
- Rating 13 and above
- Venue Daehakro Arts Theater Grand Theater
- Duration 90 min.
- Premiere 2023 Vienna, Austria
- Tickets R 65,000won S 50,000won A 30,000won
A sensorial tension between theatre and music, unfolding a new dimension of the living room
Introduction<Metamorphosis of a Living Room> marks the first collaboration between internationally acclaimed theatre director Toshiki Okada and composer Dai Fujikura. The two artists, each with a distinct artistic language, experiment with a new stage format that traverses the boundaries between theatre and music. The piece begins with a family facing forced eviction, but soon takes a turn as a new catastrophe emerges—one that calls our anthropocentric view of the world into question.The actors perform a choreography that is based on criteria separate from the narrative, and it gradually transforms. Likewise, the musicians deconstruct or expand the sound, transforming the music itself. Six actors from theatre company chelfitsch and SYMPHONIC ARMONIA, seven contemporary music performers from Korea come together on stage to create a unique theatrical language. In the process, reality and fiction, movement and sound, speech and music intertwine, opening up a horizon of sensory experience. <Metamorphosis of a Living Room> blurs the lines between story and sound, inviting the audience into a world of unfamiliar sensations within a familiar space. On this stage, reality and fiction overlap, metamorphosing the living room—an everyday space of a lifetime—into an entirely new dimension.
Toshiki Okada
Playwright, director, and novelist Toshiki Okada began gaining recognition in 1997 when he founded the theatre company chelfitsch, creating works that explore the unique relationship between language and the body. In 2007, he made his international debut with
Chelfitsch
The theater company chelfitsch was founded in 1997 by Toshiki Okada, who writes and directs all of its productions. It attracts keen attention as a troupe in the vanguard of contemporary theater because of its constant exploration of method based on the relationship between speech and physical movements. The company made its debut abroad in 2007, when it performed “Five Days in March'' at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, Belgium. It has produced commissioned works such as "Grand and Floor" (2013) by Kunstenfestivaldesarts, "Super Premium Soft Double Vanilla Rich" (2017) by Theater der Welt 2014 (Germany), “NEW ILLUSION” (2022) by Ob/Scene Festival, “Metamorphosis of a Living Room” (2023) by Wiener Festwochen (Austria), and co-produced works with theaters and festivals. It has been invited to and performed works in more than 90 cities around the world. Recently, Toshiki Okada, together with Shimpei Yamada, a stage and video designer, has begun to develop EIZO-Theater, a new type of theater that is an attempt to transform display space into theatrical space by the effects that projected images have on human sensibility. They have presented the exhibitions “Beach, Eyelids, and Curtains” (2018), “The Landscape, the World, and Accidents: Everything That Happens Outside of This Room” (2020) and the theatrical performance “NEW-ILLUSION”(2022) as EIZO-Theater. The troupe has proactively collaborated with musicians and artists. It collaborated with the artist Teppei Kaneuji in the production of “Eraser Mountain” (2019) and “Eraser Forest” (2020), which probe for a new relationship between objects and human beings based on the concept of departure from anthropocentrism. It premiered a new music theatre “Metamorphosis of a Living Room'', collaborated with the composer Dai Fujikura, in Wiener Festwochen in May 2023. In 2021, it launched a workshop with people whose native language is not Japanese and premiered “The Window of Spaceship 'In-Between'” in August 2023.
Dai Fujikura
Dai Fujikura is a London-based composer that was born in Osaka, Japan in 1977. He moved to the UK at fifteen and studied under Sir George Benjamin. In 2020, Fujikura's opera "A Dream of Armageddon," based on H.G. Wells' story of the same name, premiered at the New National Theatre Tokyo and was widely acclaimed. That same year, his Fourth Piano Concerto, "Akiko's Piano," commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing and was released by Sony Music. His work "Entwine" has been performed by orchestras including the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln and the New York Philharmonic. His orchestral work "Wavering World" was commissioned by the Seattle Symphony and performed by other notable orchestras around the globe. His music theatre piece "Metamorphosis of a Living Room," in collaboration with theatre director Toshiki Okada, was staged in several citie. Fujikura has presented three operas: "SOLARIS" (2015), co-commissioned by several European opera houses; "The Gold-Bug" (2018), commissioned by Theatre Basel; and "A Dream of Armageddon" commissioned by New National Theatre Tokyo (2020). His collaborations span various genres, working with artists like Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Sylvian. For the film "Mitsubachi to Enrai" (LISTEN TO THE UNIVERSE), he composed "Spring and Asura." Fujikura has composed for traditional Japanese instruments as well as European period instruments. Since 2017 he has been the Artistic Director of the Born Creative Festival at Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre. He also curated concerts at La Folle Journée au Japon in 2016 and 2019. His music has been recorded on labels such as NMC, Kairos, Sony Music, and Fujikura’s own record label, Minabel Records. He has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Ivor Novello Award and the Silver Lion from the Venice Biennale.
- Playwright / Director Toshiki Okada
- Composer Dai Fujikura
- Cast Izumi Aoyagi, Chieko Asakura, Riki Ishikura, Mariko Kawasaki, Makoto Yazawa, Manami Watanabe
- Music SYMPHONIC ARMONIA
- Sound Aki Shiraishi
- Sound Supervisor Koichi Ishimaru (Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre)
- Lighting Masayoshi Takada (RYU)
- Costume Kyoko Fujitani (FAIFAI)
- Set design dot architects
- Dramaturg Masahiko Yokobori
- Technical Director Marie Moriyama
- Stage Manager Chikage Yuyama
- Technical Advisor Daijiro Kawakami (Scale Laboratory)
- English translation Aya Ogawa
- Graphic Design Mariko Okazaki (REFLECTA, Inc.)
- Producers Megumi Mizuno (precog), Tamiko Ouki (precog)
- Production Manager Yuko Takeda
- Assistant Production Manager Nanami Endo
- World premiere Klangforum Wien [Music], Wataru Omura [Cast], Makiko Yamaguchi [Creative Advisor], Andreas Regelsberger [German Translation], Asami Hori [Tour Manager], Minano Hirano [Assistant Production Manager]
- Creation Workshop Ensemble Nomad [Music], Tatsuya Tsujimoto [Cover], Ryusei Nagami [Nagie] [Sound Design]
- Commissioned by Wiener Festwochen
- Produced by Wiener Festwochen, chelfitsch
- Co-produced by KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen, Holland Festival, Aichi Prefectural Arts Theater, The Japan Foundation
- Planning and production precog co.,LTD.
- Cooperated by KAJIMOTO, nakagoo, Steep Slope Studio, YAMABUKI FACTORY, d&b audiotechnik GmbH & Co. KG.
- With the assistance of The Saison Foundation
- Sound operator Tsuyoshi Endo, Takayuki Tojo (MRD)
- Lighting operator Arisa Nagasaka (RYU), Natsuki Kawamura (RYU)
- Stage Manager Takashi Kawachi
- Assistant stage manager Yuzuko Matsushima, Aiko Oguro
- Tour manager Takafumi Sakiyama
- Organized by Japan Foundation
The theatre company chelfitsch was founded in 1997 by Toshiki Okada, who writes and directs all of its productions. Applauded for its distinctive methodology, which applies the relationship between quirky speech and physical movements, it attracts keen attention, both inside and outside Japan, as a troupe in the vanguard of contemporary theatre. Its slovenly, "noisy" physicality, which seems to exaggerate ordinary gestures at times and seems not to do so at others, was even likened to dance, becoming its signature aesthetic. The company made its international debut in 2007, when it performed <Five Days in March> at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts. Since then, the company has built a global presence, performing in over 90 cities in Asia, Europe, and North America. In 2011, <Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech> received the critics' award from the Association québécoise des critiques de théâtre in Montreal, Canada in recognition of its artistic excellence. In 2018, it produced and exhibited <Beach, Eyelids, and Curtains: chelfitsch's EIZO-Theater> at the Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto, showcasing a new approach to constructing theatrical space through the medium of projected images. In 2019-2020, it collaborated with Teppei Kaneuji to produce <Eraser Mountain> at KYOTO EXPERIMENT 2019 and <Eraser Forest> at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. Created under a single concept of “EIZO-Theater,” the two pieces were performed in two different types of spaces, garnering attention for traversing the boundaries between theatre and visual arts. Chelfitsch continues to engage in co-productions with leading theatres and festivals around the world. The company constantly updates its methodology, which revolves around the relationship between speech and body, and explores new avenues of theatrical expression unbound by dramaturgy. Their major works include <Current Location> (2012), <Ground and Floor> (2013), <Super Premium Soft Double Vanilla Rich> (2014), <Time's Journey Through a Room> (2016), and <Five Days in March – Re-creation> (2017).
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