World premiere toshiki okada at the festival ‹theater der welt›

In Japan, Toshiki Okada is a leading voice in an artists generation, dealing with the apathy that has begun to take hold of society after the Fukushima disaster. Over the last ten years, the director and writer has been developing a ‹theatre of alienation›, in which the delicacy and fragility of form works to enhance the power of the philosophical and socio-political reflection.

His latest play ‹Super Premium Soft Double Vanilla Rich› is set within the ‹Smile Factory›, a franchise of a large convenience store chain. Brightly lit, sparklingly clean and always kept pleasantly room temperature, the store creates a perfect bubble, a hyper-reality separated from the real world. In this environment store managers, part-time staff and obnoxious clients interact with each other surrounded by a feeling of powerlessness.

On the 24th of May the play hat its world premiere at the festival ‹Theater der Welt› in Mannheim, Germany. First reviews were positive. Katrin Bettina Müller, TAZ.DE, describes the production as humourous as well as touching. 

During CULTURESCAPES Tokyo 2014 the play will be shown in Switzerland for the first time in KASERNE BASEL, GESSNERALLEE ZÜRICH and THEATER CHUR. We are looking forward to it!