Japan Society presents

HAMLET |TOILET
Wednesday, January 10, 7:30 pm—Followed by an opening night reception

Friday, January 12, 7:30 pm—Followed by an artist Q&A

Saturday, January 13 at 2:30 & 7:30 pm
Presented in partnership withUnder the Radar Festival / utrfest.org

Support for the international travel of Yu Murai and Theater Company Kaimaku Pennant Race for HAMLET | TOILET
is provided by The Japan Foundation. Product support is generously provided by TOTO USA, INC.

2023—2024 Performing Arts Season Support
The season is made possible by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs inpartnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Officeof the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Major support is generously provided by Doug and Teresa Peterson, the Howard Gilman Foundation andHisamitsu America, Inc. Endowment support is provided by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Endowment
Fund, The John and Miyoko Davey Endowment Fund, and the Endowment for the Performing Arts,
established with a leadership gift from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Additional support is provided by The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Nancy and Joe Walker,Dr. and Mrs. Carl F. Taeusch II, Dr. Jeanette C. Takamura, Estate of Alan M. Suhonen, and Friends of the
Performing Arts. All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd. is the official airline of the Japan Society Performing Arts
Program. Yamaha is the official piano provider of Japan Society.

Japan Society programs are made possible by leadership support from Booth Ferris Foundation and theNew York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State
Legislature.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’S NOTE

Theater Company Kaimaku Pennant Race’s

Happy New Year! Welcome to Japan Society’s 2024 Winter/Spring performingarts season!

HAMLET |TOILETI am pleased to begin the new year with the triumphant return of Yu Murai andhis company, Kaimaku Pennant Race (KPR). Looking back on the time when we
presented their previous work, Ashita no Ma-Joe: Rocky Macbeth, in May 2019,
I remember needing a bit of courage to invite that production due to a potential
financial challenge for its limited audience capacity. I saw its premiere in Tokyo in2017 in a super small space with a capacity of 70 seats, surrounding a boxing ring
set at the center of the theater. To adapt this distinctive setting to our theater, wealso created a boxing ring in the center of the stage, with audience seats on thestage. We could place only 60 seats... However, the challenge was rewarded withmany “wows,” praises, and great reviews.
Thanks to those terrific reactions, I felt comfortable inviting KPR back to NYC
despite the odd timing that required committing to their newest piece before
I saw it, as the premiere of HAMLET | TOILET was only last September. As anartistic director who has created programming for each season only after seeing
live performances, I have to say that it was a rare procedure. But I knew HAMLET| TOILET would be funny and crazy, and I trusted Murai to pay serious respect
to Shakespeare’s masterpiece to compose his own unique play on Hamlet. I
also trusted his direction and his company’s wacky energy to deliver it to theaudience. Besides, “toilet,” addressed as the central theme of HAMLET | TOILET,
is one of the representatives of the uniqueness of contemporary Japaneseculture (as I mentioned in The New York Times article). Then, in September lastyear in Tokyo, I found that I was right.
I thought the piece would be the perfect fit for the most significant andcourageous international experimental theater festival and the New Yorktheater community’s pride, Under the Radar, with which we have continued tocollaborate in the past decade. I am so glad that our relationship with the festivalcontinues, and I want to thank Mark Russell for keeping the festival going.
Dear audience, I hope you will enjoy this encounter with HAMLET | TOILET, as I
did last September in Tokyo.

Yoko Shioya
Artistic Director

Written and directed by Yu MuraiNew York City Premiere
Hamlet: Takuro Takasaki
Ophelia, Claudius, Horatio: G.K. Masayuki
Patient, Laertes, Marcellus: Yuki Matsuo
Music: TSUTCHIE (SHAKKAZOMBIE)
Choreographer: Shinnosuke Motoyama
Video Designer & Operator: Takashi Kawasaki
Lighting Designer: Tsubasa Kamei
Promotional Illustration: Kotobuki Shiriagari

DIRECTOR’S NOTEABOUT THE COMPANY

Locked in the bathroom, I was frightened by the thundering sound of the door.

Kaimaku Pennant Race (KPR), founded in 2006, is a Tokyo-based theatercompany known for their off-the-wall theatre work inspired by Western
masterpieces. They have achieved worldwide recognition through theirin-demand repertoire pieces, such as 1969: A Space Odyssey? Oddity!,Romeo and Toilet and Ashita no Ma-Joe: Rocky Macbeth, performed inFrance, Romania, Thailand, South Korea, the United States and their homecountry, Japan. In 2009, the company performed Romeo and Toilet in theNew York International Fringe Festival, earning “Four Stars” from Time Out
New York for its “fantastic combination of ingenious movement, surreal story
lines and dynamic, startlingly disciplined performers.” Their remarkable sets
have also caused quite a stir, with their notable set design of a large toilet
created from 10,000 toilet paper rolls for Romeo and Toilet. Between 20152018, the company toured extensively abroad with 1969: A Space Odyssey?
Oddity!, performing in international theater festivals and venues, such as
Festival Off d’Avignon (France), BABAL F.A.S.T. (Romania), Carthage Theatre
Festival (Tunisia), ST-BOMB festival (South Korea), and Thong Lor Art Space(Thailand). The company’s original approach to physical comedy and Western
adaptations has been hailed as “a real artistic experience” (La Provence,France). The company’s Ashita no Ma-Joe: Rocky Macbeth premiered at theHonda Gekijo in Shimokitazawa, Tokyo, in February 2017, and was presentedby Japan Society in New York in May 2019, garnering rave reviews - “[Yu Muraiis] among Japan’s most innovative contemporary playwright-directors” (AsianTheatre Journal, US). Their most recent work HAMLET / TOILET premiered atKomaba Agora Theater in Tokyo in September 2023.

Do not get in the way.
Grumblingly excreting words, scribbling them on the wall, looking to the right, tothe left, to the back, to the front, I realized that I was alone at the end, after being
swayed by myself.
—This small room is the whole world—.
Then, who knocked on the door of the world? “Is there someone inside?” or “Isthere someone outside?” I don’t know.
When the excreted words lose their whereabouts, continue to wander, word
after word after word, and they reach the end of the world, what on earth arethose words that lead to silence saying to me?

— Yu Murai

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Yu Murai (playwright/director) founded Kaimaku Pennant Race in 2006. Since
KPR’s inception, all of their productions are conceived, written and directedby Murai. With bold stage designs and witty dramas, Murai conveys his originaland singular point of view through his highly choreographed directing style.
Aside from KPR’s activities, he has been commissioned to create largerscale commercial theater productions such as Fist of the North Star—SeikiMatsu Zako Densetsu, based on a popular 1980s manga titled Hokuto no Ken,and RICE on STAGE, based on a recent TV anime. Recently, he has started
conducting workshops, lectures and play readings to expose young actors
to his quirky theater-making methodologies. Awards he has received include
the Encouragement Award at the Toga Theater Competition, given by theJapan Performing Arts Foundation (2013); the Setagaya-ku Arts Award in thePerforming Arts category (2014); and the Director Award at the 7th Sengawa
Theater Competition (2016) among others. In 2021, Murai was in charge ofdirecting the “After the Games” section of the closing ceremony of Tokyo 2020
Summer Paralympic Games.
Takuro Takasaki (actor) was born in Sapporo, Japan in 1979, and co-founded
Kaimaku Pennant Race with Yu Murai in 2006 while they were both trainees
at the theater company Yamanote Jijosha. He has appeared in all of KPR’sproductions to date since its foundation. In recent years, he has also performed
as a contemporary dancer and in more conventional theater productions, suchas with the group Mitsuwa Kai. His most recent credits include 1969: SpaceOdyssey? Oddity! (World Tour, KPR), Romeo and Toilet (World Tour, KPR), Kaji(Mitsuwa Kai), Yujo Yugiri (Mitsuwa Kai), From the Sea (Festival Tokyo) and King
Lear, SADAHARU (KPR). He was one of the three cast members of Ashita noMa-Joe: Rocky Macbeth for its premiere in Tokyo in 2017 and at Japan Society
in 2019. In 2021, he appeared in the closing ceremony of Tokyo 2020 Summer
Paralympic Games.
G.K. Masayuki (actor) was born in Sendai, Japan in 1982, and joined Kaimaku
Pennant Race in 2010 for its production of Romeo and Toilet. He has a universal
appearance that allows him to play any role and a background in martial artsthat enriches his unique mode of physical expression. His most recent credits

include 1969: Space Odyssey? Oddity! (World Tour, KPR), Romeo and Toilet(World Tour, KPR), Meimoku/Mirai (Youngage Production), Fist of the Northern
Star–Seiki Matsu Zako Densetsu (Theater G Russo) and Chikyu☆ Kudo Setsu(Ryuzanji Company). He was one of the three cast members of Ashita no MaJoe: Rocky Macbeth for its premiere in Tokyo in 2017 and at Japan Society in
2019. In 2021, he appeared in the closing ceremony of Tokyo 2020 Summer
Paralympic Games.
Yuki Matsuo (actor) was born in Yokohama, Japan in 1991, and spent partof his youth in Shanghai. He graduated from the Nippon University’s Collegeof Art, majoring in theater. He joined Kaimaku Pennant Race in 2015 for itsproduction of 1969: Space Odyssey? Oddity! which was presented at Festival
Off d’Avignon. He also established his own theater company called Toyama noHaruka in 2014 and takes on directing their pieces. Theater Company Toyamano Haruka’s most recent work was Burn The House, directed by Matsuo. He
has also appeared in many KPR productions as an actor.

Japan Society Performing Arts’ 2023-2024 season
continues in January with:TRADITIONAL & CONTEMPORARY DANCE

Nihon Buyo in the 21st Century
From Kabuki Dance to Boléro
Wednesday, January 24, 7:30 pm—Followed by a Private Gathering for Artists and Members

Thursday, January 25, 7:30 pm—Followed by an artist Q&A

Friday, January 26, 7:30 pm

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with gratitude the generous
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Arts Program and projects.
M
Japan Society gratefully
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have had their contributions
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Member of the John D.
Rockefeller 3rd Society,individuals who have named
Japan Society as a beneficiaryof their future estates.

JDR

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and support for the Annual Dinner.

To become a Japan Society member or support the Performing
Arts Program or other programs, please contact
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JAPAN SOCIETY STAFF FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAMPRESIDENT & CEO:

Joshua W. Walker, Ph.D.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR:

Yoko Shioya

PERFORMING ARTS:

Futoshi Miyai, Director of Productions & Technical Management
Amanda Waddell, Senior Program Officer
Karin Yamamoto, Program Officer
Anna Geselbracht, Intern
Francis Feng, Intern
Io Ermoli, Intern

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