Tokyo Notes : An Interview with Oriza Hirata

by Carmen Nge



Theatregoers used to plays of the Actors Studio variety were rather taken aback by Tokyo Notes, an acclaimed and award-winning Japanese drama staged last month at the KL Performing Arts Centre. The play adopts a theatrical style that appears not to be very theatrical at all. Actors often had their backs to the audience; their voices were sometimes inaudible; and more than one actor would speak at the same time. It was acting that felt curiously like life.

The brainchild of playwright-director, Oriza Hirata, Tokyo Notes is the manifestation of “contemporary colloquial theater theory” a theatrical style that eschews theatre conventions in favour of “a theatre that is a direct portrayal of the world,” according to the director. The play is performed by Seinendan Theatre Company, which was founded in 1983 and has had a strong influence on the younger generation of the theatre community in Japan.

Winner of the 39th Kishida Kunio Drama Award in 1995—the most important and prestigious award for Japanese playwrights—Tokyo Notes has been translated into 7 languages and performed in 12 cities in 9 countries since its premier in 1994. In an email interview with Off the Edge, Hirata reflects on the genesis of his play and the implications of its significance.



Carmen Nge: From my understanding of your “contemporary colloquial theatre theory”, it appears that you are celebrating real life more than theatre in its typical sense. You do not try to heighten the every day actions and realities of people to make them dramatic but instead, you present them as they are. If this is so, then why did you still choose to locate Tokyo Notes in a theatrical space? Why not have the actors perform in a real art gallery or in a public space to emphasize its realism?

Oriza Hirata: I am not celebrating the real life. My belief is that our lives exist only in reality and so there are no other ways for us but to depict reality. I'm not celebrating it. I take something from the real world and abstract it. That's how I create my pieces. It's not reality itself that I would like to delineate. I present my work, abstraction of reality, in a place suited for the piece, may it be a theater or an art gallery. We do sometimes present our show in a real art gallery.


CN: Your play has been labeled “non-dramatic” but at the same time, it has won many drama awards. What is your comment about this seeming contradiction? Do you still consider your work to be “plays” or “drama”?

Oriza Hirata: I have never once said that my work is non-dramatic. I only eliminated the incidents and events what had been considered 'dramatic' in the Western theater. I am creating very orthodox theater. There is a play script, a director and actors on stage speaking and moving in accordance with the script. And it is not my concern what it is called as the result.


CN: Tokyo Notes, written in 1994, is said to be your reaction to the first Gulf War. Why do you think you were so inspired by the war? What impact did it have in your life at the time?

Oriza Hirata: It was not so much the impact of the war itself. The impact I got was more from the fact that we were still leading our ordinary lives watching the war on TV.


CN: The setting of Tokyo Notes is in an art museum, usually a place where there is more looking and viewing than there is talking and dialogue. Why did you choose this setting? Is it perhaps symbolic of Japan’s position in the war—as neutral observers, commenting only on the sidelines but not directly involved?

Oriza Hirata: I don't mind your taking it that way.


CN: Tokyo Notes appears to be a piece that challenges the role of the audience as spectator to a dramatic event. According to reviews of your work, audience members have expressed frustration and discomfort when watching the play. How important is the audience in Tokyo Notes? What kind of effect did you want your audience to have?

Oriza Hirata: I always hope that the audience members feel as if they are also on the stage sharing the same space. I would like them to feel and think about what's happening on stage as if it is happening to them. It's different from audience sympathizing with the protagonist, which often is the case in many theatrical presentations. It's not like Brechtian plays that teach something to the audience either. I would like the audience to 'be there' when something happens on stage.


CN: Tokyo Notes is said to be your homage to Ozu’s Tokyo Story. Do you see any similarity between your own work and Ozu’s? How and why did Tokyo Story inspire you?

Oriza Hirata: Although Ozu is the filmmaker I most respect, I am not affected directly by his methods. From his Tokyo Story I only borrowed two things: the basic setting (that someone from the countryside comes to see the family) and the essential theme (who will look after the parents).


CN: Cody Poulton, your English translator, has said that your Tokyo Notes exhibits a new form that is a lens through which to gaze at the Japanese and how they see the world at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Do you agree with this characterization of your work? If yes, then how would you say the Japanese see the world today and is Tokyo Notes an accurate reflection of that?

Oriza Hirata: The Japanese do not see the world in any way whatsoever. The Japanese are surprisingly apathetic about the world. That is what Tokyo Notes is about.

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This interview was first published in Off The Edge magazine, August issue.