FESTIVAL/TOKYO

Performers and audience will melt into the Ikebukuro landscape: a new outdoor theatre is
born

As seen in recent performances on the shores of Lake Biwa, in a former smelting factory on Inujima Island using some 4,000 logs, Ishina's work takes all the stage elements of design, music, dance, and actors' speech, melting them with the landscape and air of the location, creating a time and space that can only be experienced at that place and moment. With their contribution to F/T09, "Rojishiki", they constructed their famous "Yatai Mura" (stalls village) for
the first time in Tokyo, and which was visited by 4,000 local residents and visitors.

For this new production for F/T Ishinha will create their first outdoor performance in Tokyo in 18 years. However, as opposed to their recent work using large-scale sets and stagings this work will focus on the physicality of the actors and is themed around making a deep connection with the audiences and the landscape.

A play with the same concept will be performed this September at low tide on Inujima in Okayama, with the "stage" 0 meters below sea level. In contrast to this, the Tokyo version has chosen a roof as the space to show the Tokyo landscape. Accordingly, Ishinha and Festival/Tokyo have received the special support of SEIBU IKEBUKUROHONTEN, a department store that has long existed as an integral part of Ikebukuro's cultural life. The stage will be set up on an open plaza between the main building and annex.

With the sound of railways below the performance space and with the skyscrapers of Shinjuku rising into view
before the audience's eyes, a new outdoor theatre experience will here be born, a landscape of Ikebukuro as the
city is discovered and constructed by each member of the audience from the elements of light, sound, scenery and
performers.