Stage director and video artist Yujiro Sagami called together a group of senior residents of Itami area (Hyogo-ken, Japan) under one condition: "Must be 70 years or older." In July 2009, 27 year old director Sagami and a cast of one actress in her 20's, and seven senior participants of the "Elderly generation" premiered DRAMATHOLOGY at AI Hall Itami. The creation of this performance began by each of this wide-age-ranged cast (the oldest 96 years of age) sharing their personal stories, in other words, their "drama" and collected them into an "anthology," put together in a DRAMATHOLOGY . The performance opens with the elderly performers narrating their after life while an image of a young female sinking into ocean is projected in the scenery. Then the spiritless body of her appears on stage, and each elder begins to tell their random-seeming personal stories.
"I have lived as a salaried-man (office worker) for 42 years" "I fell in love with a boy during elementary school" "I was able to loose 7 kg thanks to the diet with Asian ginseng"
Ultimately these individual stories assemble together to transcend from something personal to a collective history, illustrating a picture of the generation. In this aging society of Japan where a population over 20 million is over 70 years old, youthful and elderly spirits intertwine to create an astonishing moment exposing life and death.