ROMEO and TOILET
A masterpiece by Shakespeare "Romeo and Juliet",
if its ending were with their mutual death.
Old Romeo is gettting into the galaxy railroad.
In that night sky, the Milky Way of a myriad of spermatozoa, is bridging.
Can Romeo get to the star where Juliet is waiting?
That day, Romio sadly survived, the love story he dreamed at the end.
It is a galaxy festival today. The stars we see are from past, try to see the
fleeting future, Romeo will close his eyes for eternity. (Tokyo.2016)
Record
August, 2009 New York
The New York International Fringe Festival
HERE Arts Center - Mainstage Theater
December, 2009 Tokyo
Triumphal return Performance ( in associated with ASAHI ART SQUARE )
ASAHI ART SQUARE
March, 2010 Tokyo
Tokyo Performing Arts Market Showcase
THEATER GREEN BOX in BOX THEATRE
November, 2011 Sapporo
Small theater specialized for theater BLOCH
September, 2014 Yokohama
Sotetsu Honda Theater
Reviews
The New York Times by Erik Piepenburg
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/at-the-fringe-romeo-and-toilet/
"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."
nytheatre.com by Michael Mraz
"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."
Time Out New York by Elizabeth Barr, editorial director
https://www.timeout.com/newyork
"**** [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.―"
newtheatercorps by Nicole C. Lee
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."
Ant Hampton (Rotozaza /UK)
"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."
Chong WANG (Theatre du Reve Experimental /China)
"A young Suzuki ( Tadashi ), fresh, hilarious, and powerful!"
Josh Bowman (Ars Nova, Development Manager/NewYork)
"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!"
Director’s Note
The fight by Romeo and Juliet is a lonely task.
The fight is against the change in front of them. The place and the moment are only
for them, for a couple and their bodies who believe that they are tied by love.
And the end, their fight will end with a tragic love in loneliness.
We fight in the private room in the toilet too.
The fight is against the change in front of us.
There is not such a simple and lonely task as we continued over the era,
over any environment.
In our “ROMEO and TOILET”, we will show you the crystals of two love that finally appears after their lonely task.
And the moment the crystal of love falls into the toilet bowl, the next tragic love knocks on the door.
The dry sounds lonesomely throughout the all-standing theater.(Tokyo.2016)