The Attic

Last night i saw the attic, by yoji sakate, produced by the play company. It's about a hikikomori, which is a phenomenon of people, mainly teenage boys, almost exclusively in japan, locking themselves into a room for long periods of time (we're talking about years in some cases) and shutting out the outside world. It's become, not exactly popular, but somewhat widespread in the last several years.

This play's take on it explores the idea of artisans creating small attic-like structures which are sold for the purpose of self-sequestering, and what happens as a result of that, socially and individually. In that vein, the set mostly consisted of said 'attic,' a skewed room with several doors (and of course the invisible 'fourth wall') tucked into the middle of the stage, giving a great sense of the cramped and claustrophobic. The production was great - really great technically. The sets, lighting and (imho) especially sound were expertly designed and executed, and the acting was really good too. (I didn't even realize i knew one of the guys in the cast - he looked familiar, but it wasn't until i got a message from a friend that i remembered where i'd met him.)

The real star though is the script - it's being billed as the english language premier (although i'm almost sure i read about it being done in australia, and i'm thinking that was probably in english). It sort of felt like it was trailing off in the end (and i can't quite figure out why) but mostly it was fascinating - surprising and poignant and funny and engaging. Quite consciously japanese, in a way that plays with the ideas of otherness and belonging (and especially isolation.) (Hilarious scene where characters are re-imagined as movie samurai!)

First rate piece of work. Go see it.