With a consistent focus on conceptualizing the city of Tokyo since the group’s formation in 2002, Akira Takayama-led Port B has continued to expand the possibilities of theater in both theoretical and practical terms. In this new work, Tokyo School Excursion Project, participants will take on the perspectives of outsiders, conducting research on Tokyo and creating a travel plan. They will then embark on a group trip, pretending to be students on a school excursion. This tour, which will include those living in Tokyo as foreigners, refugees, and political exiles, will figure as a theatrical work of art that defamiliarizes the city, as well as a learning opportunity shaped by the participants themselves.
The newly organized New Tokyo School Excursion Project: Fukushima Version will be the final chapter in the Tokyo Historical Tragedies Trilogy, following the Kurdish Version and the Japanese Orphans in China Version held successively across the last half year. 8 years have passed since the earthquake. Invited from Fukushima, high school students will join this 3 day 2 night “school excursion” that will summon a number of times and voices to Tokyo as it awaits the Olympics. What kind of future will we perceive as we travel through this city—seen from the perspective of Fukushima—at the point where past tragedies meet the present day?