Love is complex enough at the best of times, but when it crosses cultural borders, things can get really confusing. Opening April 24 at the Shimokitazawa Geki Shogekijo is "John-kun and Yoko-chan," a play co-written by American Michael Naishtut and Japanese Yoko Narahashi that takes a seriocomic look at the trials of cultural misunderstanding and the triumph of true love.
The play is set in Tokyo, where John has come to learn sushi-making so he can set up a kaiten-zushi shop in New York. Yoko is a young, modern-minded Tokyo girl who works as a freeta but dreams of becoming a kindergarten teacher.
They meet in a nightclub, and it is love at first sight. Subsequent scenes trace the progression of their relationship, charting the growth of their commitment to each other against the various problems that arise from their different cultural orientations. John is gregarious, childlike and openly affectionate; Yoko is reserved, serious, and physically and emotionally tentative.