Five Days In March at the Japan Society

The Japan Society presented the North American debut tour of Five Days in March as part of the current season theme of Beyond Boundaries: Genre-Bending Mavericks. The play by Toshiki Okada has won the prestigious Kishida Kunio Drama Award.

In the days before the Iraq war in 2003, two Japanese hipsters meet at a concert and fall into a one-night stand that turns into five days of continuous sex. The story is told and re-told from different perspectives reminiscent of Tarantino. When the lights rose, the actors began talking…..and talking and talking some more; given the bare stage and little traditional movement, the play was entirely focused on the verbal narrative delivered in Japanese. The players do almost a director’s commentary as they step in and out of the story and tell the audience what part they are doing next. While both of these approaches were interesting, it did become a little tiresome covering the same ground multiple times yet without enough of a new perspective to make it engaging. Sometimes it was even difficult to tell who was who. This is something we are conditioned for when watching film—someone is always leaning over and asking their friend, “Hang on, who is that guy? I thought he was the Russian spy.” However, this is unusual in theatre. Also distracting was the exaggerated fidgeting that ran throughout the choreography. It was certainly an interesting interpretation of the sometimes awkward physicality of youth, but it went a little too far and at times just seemed odd without purpose.

Despite this it was an ambitious experience with humorous elements that pushed boundaries and successfully met the challenge of melding the delivery of Japanese with English subtitles projected behind the actors. The play also authentically captured the self-absorption and fixation on the inconsequential often characteristic of apathetic youth. The translation also very effectively captured the hyper-colloquial language writer/director Okada has become known for - quite a feat by translator Aya Ogawa.

Although Five Days in March has finished its current U.S run at Japan Society, do keep an eye out for upcoming works in the Beyond Borders season such as Awaji Puppet Theater Company and Hiroaki Umeda, a performance of solo dance, light, sound & video.

Tags:   beyond boundaries, chelfitsch, five days in march, japan society

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Posted on 2/9/2009 ( Permanent Link )
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