Chiten Theatre Company: Good-Bye

Directed by Motoi Miura
Based on Goodbye by Osamu Dazai

World War II is over and Japan has lost.

One of Japan’s foremost experimental theatre companies presents GOOD-BYE, based on the 1949 work of popular Japanese novelist, Osamu Dazai, (No Longer Human), and a collage of his later works. Dazai committed suicide before finishing GOOD-BYE. 

As a man plans his death, he meets with friends and past lovers to say goodbye with a beautiful and exhilarating farewell. In a feverish story filled with lightness, brightness and peppered with macabre humour, he relives his life as a student, after university and during and after the war.

Set in a bar, accompanied live by the Japanese rock band Kukangendai, where everyone gets increasingly drunk, the piece addresses the struggle to identify what it was, and now is, to be Japanese.

‘Dazai’s final novel is totally relevant because we still haven’t resolved losing the war. In Good-bye traditional culture sits shoulder to shoulder with globalisation and Americanisation, reflecting the thought processes of contemporary Japan from the kimono to rock and roll.’ – Motoi Miura

Presented in Japanese with English surtitles.

On the 6th of March there will be a Post-show talk with Chiten Theatre Director Motoi Miura. 

Director
Motoi Miura

Based on a collage of novels by
Osamu Dazai

Music
Kukangendai

Cast (in order of appearance)
Satoko Abe, Dai Ishida, Masaya Kishimoto, Shie Kubota, Asuka Kurosawa, Yohei Kobayashi, Kazuki Masuda

Set Designer
Itaru Sugiyama

Sound Designer
Bunsho Nishikawa

Lighting Designer
Yasuhiro Fujiwara

Costume Designer
Colette Huchard

Stage Manager
Nobuaki Oshika

Producer
Yuna Tajima

Supported by
The Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan
Through the Japan Arts Council