Akira Takayama　Director

Born in 1969.　In 2002,　he founded Port B, a unit especially aiming at the collaboration of artists who exhibit forms of expression apart from the theatre genre. By this, Port B. has been continuously presenting innovative works that go far beyond the scope of conventional theatre. One of the main locations of Takayama's recent works is the Ikebukuro / Sugamo area. With a trilogy centering around the "Sunshine 60" building in Ikebukuro, one of the main symbols of Japan's postwar history, consisting of the stage work "Clouds. Home.", the tour performance "Sunshine 62" and the theatrical installation "Arechi", Port B. attracted attention not only among theatre spectators but also in the world of contemporary art. In the Festival/Tokyo 09 Spring "Clouds. Home." and "Sunshine 63" were re-created and staged in combination. In the Festival/Tokyo 09 Autumn he raised attention with his new work "Compartment City - Tokyo", referring to typical locations of the Japanese sex industry and dating cafes. Port B.'s technique of rearranging media extracts, memories and sceneries from urban spaces and contemporary society, they explore the possibilities of contemporary theatre in permanent search for the 'things to come'.

Port B

Theatrical unit formed in Tokyo by Akira Takayama in 2002. Port B. is seeking innovation in theatre by assembling artists usually working in other genres than theatre. They are steadily displaying works of elementarily different styles and approaches. Among their works centering on a dramatic texts are "About 1 hour 20 minutes on October 1 & 2 in Theatre X Brecht Festival" based on Brecht's "Didactic Plays" (2003), Heiner Müller's "Horatian", (2005), "Nietzsche" by Einar Schleef (2006) and "Clouds.Home" by Elfriede Jelinek (2007). Pieces employing a documentary approach include "Museum: Zero Hour" (2004) and "Missing Whereabouts of Sumidagawa and Old Sumidagawa" (2005), both grounded on fieldwork in specific districts of Tokyo. Recently Port B. has been focusing on tour performances that display the real cityscape in the shape of an installation. Starting with "One Way Street" in the area of Sugamo (2006), they continuously presented works in this frame such as "Tokyo/Olympic" (2007) using a sightseeing bus, "Sunshine 62" (2008), a walking-tour in Ikebukuro for five participants among others. In addition, they have been constantly developing the genre theatrical installation with "Wasteland" (2008), "North, South, East and West" at the old Seoul station building and "Apartment Complex Encyclopedia" in Toride (Ibaragi Prefecture).