ABOUT

A new collective space, a new “commons,” in the city: welcome to Theater Commons Tokyo.
Held in various locations in Tokyo, this ninth edition of Theater Commons Tokyo will feature plays, various performances, and audience-participation programs under the theme of “Breath in the Dark”!

Theater Commons Tokyo is a project to create a collective space for society that harnesses the collective wisdom of theater. By using theater – that is, by applying theatrical ideas – in the context of everyday life and the urban space, it aims to propose a model for theater(s) to come. Theater Commons Tokyo and its artists use the imagination of theater to create experiences in which diverging elements and time periods intersect, and the ordinary is defamiliarized through dialogue and discovery.

Director's Note

Breath(ing) in the Dark Chiaki Soma

“The ground is shaking.
It’s the energy of the earth; it’s the destructive energy of dropping bombs. And at every moment, somebody stands upon this ground, shaking. They are shaking from cold, shaking from hunger. They are shaking in anger, they are shaking in grief, they are shaking from all the indescribable feelings bottled up inside. Life itself is shaking. […] The world is tearing apart everywhere, inflamed and shaking in severe pain.”

Has the world changed at all since I wrote these words a year ago? Far from it: structural violence has further escalated, and we have reached a breaking point in the severity and number of massacres and humanitarian crises, let alone any hopes of a ceasefire. We have also become accustomed to clearly abnormal situations caused by catastrophic natural disasters and climate change, brushing them aside as “just the way it is.” Even if we rationally understand that something is clearly not right, we have been made to succumb to a sense of helplessness that does nothing to rewrite this abnormal reality. Even in the art world, it feels as though this tendency to avoid confronting the underlying issue permeates like air. Having thrown our trauma of the coronavirus pandemic into oblivion, we pretend not to see the endless inflammations experienced all over the world. Where exactly are we aiming to go?

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  • Theater Commons Tokyo '25
  • Date | February 21st - March 2nd, 2025
  • Venues | Various places in Tokyo
  • Organized by |
    Theater Commons Tokyo Executive Committee
    Goethe-Institut Tokyo
    Embassy of France in Japan / Institut français du Japon
    Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
    Arts Commons Tokyo
  • Supported by | Arts Council Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, Fondation Franco-Japonaise Sasakawa
  • Venur support | Wacoal Art Center, Minato City
  • Theater Commons Tokyo Executive Committee
  • Chairperson | Chiaki Soma (Representative Director, Arts Commons Tokyo)
  • Vice-chairman | Natsuko Odate (Board Director, Arts Commons Tokyo)
  • Member | Samson Sylvain (Attaché culturel, Embassy of France in Japan / Institut français du Japon)
  • Member | Bas Valckx (Deputy Head Public Diplomacy, Political, Cultural Affairs, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)
  • Auditor | Yohei Suda (Lawyer)
  • Theater Commons Tokyo Staff
  • Executive Director | Chiaki Soma (Arts Commons Tokyo)
  • Production Manager and Coordinator | Satomi Shimizu (Arts Commons Tokyo)
  • Project Coordinator | Makiko Yamazato, Haruka Shibata, Sachi Abe, Yuko Taniguchi, Haruka Fujisaki, Naoya Yoshioka (Arts Commons Tokyo)
  • Editor | Satoko Shibahara, Mai Hashiba, Rieko Suzuki (Arts Commons Tokyo)
  • PR | Sayaka Iwamoto (Arts Commons Tokyo)
  • Translation | Art Translators Collective
  • Art Direction / Design | Kensaku Kato (LABORATORIES)
  • Web Design | Kensaku Kato, Hiroki Ito (LABORATORIES)
  • Intern | Ou Jingwei, Yumi Okada, Maika Oguri, Hina Ozawa, Coco Kashiwara, Mao Sekiguchi, Yuzuki Hashimoto, Shurin Miyahara
  • Accessibility adviser | Miyuki Tanaka
  • Accounting Adviser | Yamauchi-Accounting-Office
  • Legal Adviser | Yohei Suda (Lawyer / Arts Commons Tokyo)
  • Theater Commons Tokyo '25 Technical Staff
  • Stage Manager | Lang Craighill
  • Lighting | Megumi Yamashita, Aria Hoashi, Honoko Itami (RYU)
  • Sound | Takeshi Inarimori
  • Movie | Yuki Sato (Edith Grove)
  • Documentation Video and Photography | Yutaro Yamaguchi