Thirty-one year-old playwright, director and actor Keishi Nagatsuka has been turning heads since he staged his first productions while still a student at Waseda University. In 1996 in Tokyo, he founded the Asagaya Spiders company, which has received glowing critical acclaim and regularly plays to full houses. Today, Nagatsuka makes his debut at the New National Theater, the nation's foremost venue for contemporary drama, with a new play titled "Ajia no Onna (An Asian Woman)."
Set in Tokyo in the near future, the play deals with recovery and self-sacrifice after an unimaginable loss. In the aftermath of a devastating earthquake, mentally ill Makiko (Yasuko Tomita), who lives with her older brother, Akio (Yoshimasa Kondo), spends her time tending a barren garden amid the rubble. When Akio's old friend, Ichinose (Ryo Iwamatsu), a middle-aged novelist, moves into their half-ruined house, the two men waste their time talking and drinking. Slowly Makiko begins to regain an awareness that life must go on -- not just her own, but her family's and the city's, too.
Nagatsuka spoke to The Japan Times recently about his latest work and his concept of theater.