|
In March 1995, the religious cult Aum Shinrikyo released lethal
serin nerve gas into the Tokyo underground, leaving 12 people dead
and thousands injured. It proved to be a major traumatic experience
for Japanese society, not only shaking Japan's core beliefs but
also ushering in an era dominated by a new kind of terrorism with
a vision of utterly destroying modern city life. In his study of
the serin attack, leading Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami tried
to trace the reasons behind the action, listening and recording
victims and investigating the background and perspectives of the
perpetrators. As he said, "If the 20th century was the century
of world wars, the 21st century may prove to be the century of an
'underground war' between 'closed intellectual systems' and 'open
intellectual systems'".
Taking Haruki Murakami's work as an initial impetus, Berlin-based
director and stage designer Kazuko Watanabe has developed a multi-media
theatre project, focusing entirely on the sensory reception of the
turning point, or breaking point, such an act of terror represents
for society - for the victims, their relatives, and those only confronted
with it in press reports. In three sections, she links the world
of Berlin today with the gas attack and life "after Day X"
in Tokyo - a life scarred physically and psychologically by this
experience of violence. She uses walk-in installations, video-generated
mass images and the intensity of a single human voice to reach the
viewers at her performance venue in the shell of the future Reichstag
underground station, taking them on an emotional roller-coaster
ride from carefree everyday life to the experience of terror.
A co-production by Media Pool and the House of World Cultures,
financed by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds; in cooperation with
the UdK and the Humboldt University, and with support from
the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Tokyo.
Underground: The poster as pdf-download
|
|
|
Underground
Multimedia
Director: Kazuko Watanabe
Kazuko Watanabe, born in Sendai/Japan, grew up in
Tokyo. She came to Germany in 1972, having first attended
a fashion school in Vienna. Initially, she designed costumes
for Achim Freyer, Claus Peymann, Axel Manthey, Christoph Nel
and Peter Palitzsch. From 1978, she worked as a freelance
stage and costume designer and was involved in a range of
projects, including ones for George Tabori, B.K. Tragelen
and Volker Hesse at the Munich Kammerspiel, and for theatres
in Bochum, Bonn, Düsseldorf and Basel. In 1988, she debuted
as a director with Joshua Sobol's "Sylvester 72"
and since then has staged around 25 plays and 17 operas. In
1998, she was invited to take part in the key German-language
theatre festival Berliner Theatertreffen with her production
of "Stecken, Stab and Stangl". Today, Watanabe lives
in Berlin and teaches there at the University of the Arts
(UdK).
|
