- Theater
Their latest work explores the pluralities of self, the world, and time, challenging the critical point between body and language.
Playwright Shuntaro Matsubara, winner of the 63rd Kishida Kunio Drama Award, has penned a new work, directed by Ayaka Ono Akira Nakazawa Spacenotblank. Following “Dance Dance Revolutions” (Kyoto Art Center) in 2023, and “Alice in Wonderlight” (Setagaya Public Theater) in 2024, the unique collaboration of this particular playwright and director-choreographer has birthed yet another idiosyncratic world, which after a successful world premiere at Toyooka Theater Festival 2025, arrives at Theater Commons Tokyo.
The beauty of Matsubara’s plays lies in their playful deviation from the logicality of modern language. This piece revisits a theme consistently explored by Matsubara since his early works—questioning the pluralities of the self, the world, and time, but this time with the former students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. How will the performer’s bodies and movements, brought to life by Spacenotblank, incarnate this question? This latest work seeks to push the critical point between body and language even further.
Profile
Shuntaro Matsubara
Born in Kumamoto City in 1988, Shuntaro Matsubara is a playwright. Unusually in Japan, he works as an independent playwright not affiliated permanently with a specific theatre company. In 2015, his debut play En Route, won the 15th AAF Drama Award given by Aichi Prefectural Arts Theater. He won the 63rd Kishida Kunio Drama Award for Yamayama (I Would Prefer Not To). His other works include Alice in Wonderlight, Dance Dance Revolutions, and Impossible Gag. Novels include Tell the Truth and To the Dog.
Ayaka Ono Akira Nakazawa Spacenotblank
Founded in 2012 as a performing arts collective of Ayaka Ono & Akira Nakazawa who makes dance, theatre and new mechanisms of performing arts. By integrating the established concepts of the performing arts with new mechanisms of their own research and development, they explore the state of the performing arts in the contemporary world and continue to experiment with creating diverse values. With communication arising from the unique environment and relationships at the root of their creation, they are actively engaged in both continuous collaboration with creation members and collaboration with different artists. Dance Base Yokohama Resident Artist. Creator for “Wings”: International Dance Project by Dance Base Yokohama for Emerging Creators.
Dates
February 26th [Thu] 16:00
February 27th [Fri] 14:00 / 19:00
February 28th [Sat] 14:00 / 19:00
March 1st [Sun] 14:00
Performance times
Approx. 80 min.
Venue
Goethe-Institut Tokyo
7-5-56 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052
Ticket
Adults | 4,000 yen
Students | 3,000 yen
*Booking essential, non-reserved seat
*Ticket holders for the paid programs of Theater Commons Tokyo ’26 (excluding the Commons Forum) are eligible to attend the “ATC Station” for free.
Language
Japanese
Accessibility
Subtitles | Japanese with speaker-labeled , English
Audio guide | None
Additional accessibility | Written communication support available at reception
Wheelchair-accessible seating available
Credits
Playwright | Shuntaro Matsubara
Direction | Ayaka Ono & Akira Nakazawa
Created with & Performed by | Chika Araki, Himawari Inoue, Rei Kagata, Yuki Koga
Rehearsal director | Shizuka Yamaguchi
Sound | Shomi Sakurauchi, Kentaro Koda
Lighting | Nami Nakayama, Yumiko Otsu
Scenography | Takuya Kamiike
Stage management | Chikage Yuyama
English translation | Jeremy Kuhles
Japanese and English subtitles system｜Nanako Kato, Kotaro Konishi, Sayuri Yao
In cooperation with | Kusa, nico film
Planning & Production | Shuntaro Matsubara, Ayaka Ono Akira Nakazawa Spacenotblank
English subtitles translation production & Co-production | Ebara Riverside Theatre
[Tokyo performance]
Cooperation | Goethe-Institut Tokyo