FESTIVAL/TOKYO

Summary

In a dark space full of the signs of disquiet, two violinists emerge holding their silent instruments. From the dialogue of these nameless musicians comes the play, "Kein Licht.", Nobel Prize-winner Elfriede Jelinek's response to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, and the resulting Fukushima disaster. It portrays a media-centric world of proliferating vulnerable, at times passionate verbosity, acutely questioning the agency of speaking and listening.

Chiten's Motoi Miura directs this Japan première, dissecting the play down to its segments and then re-connecting the actors' voices and movements. Music direction comes from composer Masahiro Miwa, known for his investigation into the relationships between electricity and people and music, bringing audiences closer to the site where Jelinek's voices and sounds are born, a text drawing on diverse contexts, from philosophy to popular culture.

The speakers seem somehow to be the voices of the dead swept away by the tsunami. The play will listen to them, crafting a time for requiem and prayer, for self-examination and searching.