The war in Syria has been making headlines for more than two years now, but it's made very little impact on the theater world in Japan. Next month, though, that's set to change with the Tokyo staging of "The Fear of Breathing," a hard-hitting British documentary drama about that ongoing multi-pronged conflict.
To be staged at the Akasaka Red Theater by director Toshinobu Kojo and Tokyo-based One Two Works, a company he founded in 2009 following on from previous stage work that began in 1986, the play — translated into Japanese and with leading actors Nagare Hagiwara and Yoji Matsuda in the central roles — is based on verbatim transcripts of interviews with people across Syria's social and political divides.
Among them, we encounter leaders in the Free Syrian Army, supporters of President Bashar al-Assad, a doctor, a DJ, a grieving mother and a range of political activists. Each person bears witness to their personal experience of war, together contributing to a mosaic that purposely negates a single dominant viewpoint.
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