The New York International Fringe Festival

HERE Arts Center - Mainstage Theater

Triumphal return Performance ( in associated with ASAHI ART SQUARE )

ASAHI ART SQUARE

Tokyo Performing Arts Market Showcase

THEATER GREEN BOX in BOX THEATRE 

Small theater specialized for theater BLOCH

Sotetsu Honda Theater

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/at-the-fringe-romeo-and-toilet/

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"The show categories in the Fringe Festival are pretty

self-explanatory: drama, comedy, solo, clown, vaudeville, magic.

But I’m not sure if “performance art,” as it’s listed in the program

guide, quite sums up “Romeo and Toilet,” an hour-long exercise in

dancing, marching, clowning and screaming by the Tokyo-based Kaimaku

Pennant race.

Here’s how the company describes its work on its Web site:

“Our performance has the style that emphasizes the explosion of energy

spread out of actors’ body trying up to their limitation with much of

body liquid.”

Well, yes.

At last night’s show the actors performed dance numbers with

military-like precision, shouted at each other at close range, slapped

each other’s faces, simulated bodily functions using a human toilet

and made a human caterpillar. The story of Shakespeare’s tragedy was

there somewhere, although all I know for sure is that Juliet was not a

person but a Chupa Chup.

Still not sure what to think? The company is keeping a video diary on

YouTube, where you can watch rehearsal clips and hear what the

performers have to say about being in New York."

http://www.nytheatre.com/

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"Kaimaku Pennant Race's show Romeo and Toilet―straight from Tokyo―is

billed as having a style emphasizing the "explosion of energy spread

out" and "uniting Japanese animated cartoon culture and Japanese

physical characteristics." It is also described as a "challenge" of

Romeo and Juliet. While the first is extremely true of the production

and a credit to their work, I found it troublesome identifying the

connection to Romeo and Juliet and struggled mightily to figure out

just what the meaning behind Romeo and Toilet was.

Romeo and Toilet is an hour-long blend of colorful vignettes. It

relies heavily of the physicality and movements of its performers and

very little on dialogue (it is actually almost ten minutes before

there is any dialogue spoken). Many of the scenes created by the

six-person all-male ensemble are very familiar. Men finding different

uses for the toilet (not at all in a crude way). A line of men trying

cross a tightrope and falling to their deaths one-by-one. A bunch of

women giving birth. A bunch of babies in a room, with pacifiers,

trying to communicate with one another. They all have a certain

humanity to them and are quite hilarious by themselves. The show

seemed to have little to do with Romeo and Juliet itself, though,

aside from a few mentions of the names here and there; and, overall,

as a cohesive unit, I wracked my brain throughout―trying to dig up

some common thread.

However, I did care dearly about finding that thread and that is a

tribute to the skill and passion of the ensemble and the direction of

Yu Murai. Yu Murai has built his cast into one cohesive unit of

independently moving parts. Their synchronicity in movement and energy

is extremely impressive.

Relying heavily on physicality and sculpting images (two men sit

crouched as a "toilet" for minutes, numerous times throughout the

show), their control over their bodies is amazing. The power and

passion they bring to enlivening Romeo and Toilet is incomparable.

They have formed a perfectly balanced ensemble and their passion makes

you care.

Funazo Hasegawa's sound and Yuuji Sekiguchi's lighting work so well

with the actors that the elements are almost the seventh and eighth

members of the cast.

Romeo and Toilet seems to go in every direction, but if it is

anything, it is extremely focused. The performance style they've

developed is interesting and engaging. Perhaps, the idea is to let go

of the search for meaning, and let the show affect you as it will.

Perhaps another watcher will find that common thread where I did not.

The tagline of the show is "performance is destructive power" and

where I, perhaps, lacked understanding, Romeo and Toilet does not lack

that power."

https://www.timeout.com/newyork

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"**** [FOUR STARS] The name of this show is the first hint that this

dance-theater piece probably won’t be a strictly faithful version of

Shakespeare’s tragedy―and it isn’t. The Japanese dance company Kaimaku

Pennant Race offers a barely recognizable Bard, refracted through the

lenses of Japanese sensibilities and anime culture. Those looking for

romantic grandeur will perhaps be disappointed. But others will be

rewarded with a fantastic combination of ingenious movement, surreal

story lines and dynamic, startlingly disciplined performers. The

troupe’s rendition of a warrior on horseback, accompanied by his

guardsmen, is thrilling; its mob of babies is silly brilliance; and

its take on water swirling through a toilet―maybe you thought the

title was a bluff?―would make Dali chuckle.―"

Fringe/Romeo and Toilet

"What do you get when you take a classic Shakespearean tale, Romeo and

Juliet, and mix it with Japanese interpretive dance and…a toilet?

We’re never exactly sure in this 60-minute performance entitled Romeo

and Toilet, presented by Kaimaku Pennant race. Written and directed by

Yu Murai, six male actors engage in intense, physical actions that

never seem to compliment or build a clear plot. While the names Romeo

and Juliet are often thrown around, as well as some other lines in

both English and Japanese, there is virtually no comprehensible speech

or dialogue. In one scene, the characters engage in an intense

argument that is little more than muffled speech because each man has

a pacifier in his mouth. The performance relies heavily on

choreography involving such stunts as imitating horseback riding with

only the actors’ bodies. The music is perhaps the best part of the

show. Featuring a mix of alternative rock ‘n’ roll and jazz, it is

reminiscent of a Quentin Tarantino film or a Japanese cartoon. And

while the work put into the show and the physical demand on the

performers is laudable, I doubt an even cursory knowledge of Japanese

will illuminate this show for you."

"Romeo and Toilet is the most invigorating, confounding and hilarious

theatre piece I've ever seen in Japan. I can't get it out of my head."

"A young Suzuki ( Tadashi ), fresh, hilarious, and powerful!"

"Romeo and Toilet was a terrific show! It was fun, innovative, and

wildly unique. This is a piece that defies definition. It's weird,

hilarious, and great to watch!"