The “real Tokyo” in Ikebukuro Nishiguchi Park

Port B is a company garnering attention both at home and overseas for its use of multi-media in theatre performances and installations to debate contemporary urban and social issues. They revived two major works for F/T09 Spring, “Clouds. Home” and “Sunshine 63”. Now, for F/T09 Autumn they will be working in collaboration with the Festival to explore new creative possibilities in contemporary theatre.
The stage for their new work “Compartment City – Tokyo” will be Ikebukuro Nishiguchi Park. In this public space director Akira Takayama will present a new kind of theatre performance in an installation comprised of compartment units and video footage. Based on meticulous research into the so-called private spaces deep in the metropolis and interviews with the people who reside there, the work will investigate the nature of fiction and fact, the private and the public.
This is one of the must-see shows of Festival/Tokyo 09 Autumn. After its premiere at the Festival it will tour to Vienna Art Week, ahead of several other cities.

Connecting to the real of today

The work will be created in the form of separate compartments in temporarily constructed, prefab structures in Ikebukuro Nishiguchi Park. It is a park where many kinds of people, young and old, from different countries gather together, pass through and even live. But rather than being just another foreign object that will be absorbed into this melting pot, the compartments will start a dialogue with visitors; they will reflect the face of Tokyo – they will become a ‘space’ in their own right. Only Port B has the theatrical magic to be able to produce such a ‘space’ that captures the real Tokyo in Ikebukuro Nishiguchi Park.

Video installation

As much a theatrical experience as an artistic one, visitors to “Compartment City – Tokyo” will be able to enjoy the video installation inside the compartments. You will be able to watch interviews with the people of the park, those same homeless people just on the over side of the wall. This will go beyond a normal sense of the ‘appreciation’ of an artistic work: it is a piece which captures the privacy of an ignored class of people hidden in our city, one which will be sure to produce an effect on its audience. After viewing the installation and leaving the box, how will you look at the landscape around you?
The installation is open twenty-four hours a day and can be experienced for as long as you like. No reservation is required; prices start at 500 yen for a sixty-minute session.