Christoph Marthaler, one of the most outstanding figures in postdramatic theatre will make his long-awaited first appearance in Japan with his recent masterwork "Riesenbutzbach. A Permanent Colony".

Time is extremely stretched, inscrutable gestures are repeated and repeated again, words and music are re-sounding in gigantic spaces beautifully and melancholically. Christoph Marthaler's theatrical works reflect the current situation of European society combining humour and melancholy and leading the spectators through an ambivalent interplay of outbursting laughter and desperate wordlessness.

"Riesenbutzbach" that was produced by the Wiener Festwochen in 2009, after the Lehmann shock had stirred up the world in the previous year, ironically and critically exposes the feelings of uneasiness and paranoia in the Western world after this incident. A huge space that reminds one of a typical small town in middle Europe incorporating a family home, a bank, a shopping mall, storages and garages - practically everything a Westerner has or needs. But, on many of the furniture pieces the bailiff's seal is affixed. The bank's safe cannot be opened, however hard the bank employee tries. The inhabitants of Riesenbutzbach, driven by a vast feeling of uneasiness, make an effort to protect their belongings against a nameless danger. Through surveillance cameras and security devices, they constantly suspect and observe each other. Hierarchies are highly developed and stabilized by intrigue and scheming. In this situation of stagnation and degeneration of social relations, the rare moments that make the residents of "Riesenbutzbach" assemble are the choral pieces, they sing together on occasion. The genres of the choral music, sung masterly by this superb ensemble, range from folk songs, art songs from the Romantic Era, opera, and pop songs.

A comical, melancholic and miraculous music theatre that portrays the nostalgia of a society in decline and incorporates a strong presentiment of the future, that turbo-capitalism will bring.