Seinendan in Geneve, Switzerland in Fall 2009

In September 2009, Seinendan presents "Tokyo Notes" and "The Yalta Conference" in La Bâtie - FESTIVAL DE GENÈVE

"Tokyo Notes" / "The Yalta Conference"
Text and Direction : Oriza Hirata

"Tokyo Notes" An assortment of people visit this small art museum in Tokyo in near future to see the paintings evacuated from war-torn Europe. Focusing on their various concerns (family, job, war, art, etc.) this play constructs a whole world of its own, just like a picture made from mosaic tiles. This piece, whose title pays homage to a masterpiece by filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu, "Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari)," is one of the most renowned works of Oriza Hirata. In 1995 he won the Kishida Kunio Drama Award with this piece. Since then Seinendan has been presenting “Tokyo Notes” in various venues in Japan and overseas, including Europe, North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Korea. ©T.Aoki "The Yalta Conference" Hirata first wrote this piece as a rakugo, a traditional Japanese stand-up comedy, and then revised it as a three-person theater piece. Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin gather at Yalta to discuss the postwar world, each with his own thoughts and plots in his mind. The world's postwar history of the past 50 years is fully and skillfully depicted in this 30-minute play.