The Story of Descending the Long Slopes of Valparaíso

Playwright and Direction: Yudai Kamisato
Premiere: 2017
Duration: 85min
4 Cast: Martín Tchira, Martín Piroyansky, Marina Sarmiento, Eduardo Fukushima


The story of people who came to scatter the ashes of a deceased husband/father over the sea
The story of people who crossed the Pacific in the distant past
The story of a solar eclipse observed in Paraguay
The story of one man who is still digging up the bones of war dead in Okinawa
And another who runs a bar in Ogasawara
A work of “theater as messenger” interweaving episodes Kamisato collected by himself in his travels in Oceania, Ogasawara, the Ryukyu Islands, and Latin America.
Having established his own theatrical language while attracting attention in literary circles too, Kamisato cuts open the history of “migration” in this new work.

The story was woven by Kamisato from his experiences traveling to various parts of South America during an 11-month stay in Argentina. It is performed by the Argentine actors and dancers he encountered, and Eduard Fukushima, a dancer of who was born into a family of Japanese immigrants in Brazil and has come into the limelight in Europe as well. Coming from the opposite side of the earth, they tell the story of the play in their own words.
The jumbled, atypical space of the seating area, which contains a bunk bed, church, and even stalls, was designed by the architectural unit dot architects. The stage is given a phantasmic coloring by the backdrop, which was designed by Midori Hirota of Kantaro, a sign company. In the context of these weird match-ups, the members of the audience freely find a place for viewing the play.

>>Press Release >Event website for the performances at Tokyo in 2019


Credits of the Premiere
from November 3rd to 5th at Auditorium, Kyoto Art Center
>>KYOTO EXPERIMENT 2017 main program

Dramaturge
Masashi Nomura
Translation
Gonzalo Robledo
Set design
dot architects, Midori Hirota
Costumes
Chie Ohno
Lighting
Ryoya Fudetani
Sound
Bunsho Nishikawa
Stage manager
Ayumu Okubo (KWAT)
Rehearsal Interpreter
Yoichi Tajiri
Flyer design
Kento Yoshida (bank to)
Photo
Yoshikazu Inoue
Video
Miyuki Sakuragi
English subtitle
Aya Ogawa
Japanese subtitle
Yoko Kawasaki, Masashi Nomura, and Yudai Kamisato
Production coordinator
Yoko Kawasaki

Produced and Presented by Kyoto Experiment






© all photos by Yoshikazu Inoue