Convenient truths
After performing in Japan and all over Europe, a contemporary stage play “Super Premium Soft Double Vanilla Rich”, written and directed by Toshiki Okada, will have its Bangkok debut next week.
Part of the event line-up marking the 130th anniversary of Thai–Japan diplomatic relations, Okada’s dance-oriented production manages to be at once thoroughly light-hearted and humorous as well as biting and merciless. The setting is a convenience store, a place symbolising contemporary Japanese society.
The performance featuring seven distinctive characters and some of the thousands of products on the shelves, unfolds to the accompaniment of all 48 preludes and fugues that make up JS Bach's “The Well-Tempered Clavier”, transmuted into cheap background music piped into the store.
This play marks the second Japanese production that chelfitsch Theater Company and Toshiki Okada have brought directly from Japan to Thai audiences. The first, “Five Days in March”, premiered at the Patravadhi Theatre in 2010. Last November, Toshiki came to Bangkok for the launch of the Thai version of his novel “Watashi tachi ni yurusareta tokubetsu na jikan no owari” (“The End of the Special Time We Were Allowed”), translated by Matana Jaturasangpairoj and published by Gamme Magie Editions.
The play will take place at Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University from March 10 to 12 (Friday and Saturday 7.30pm, Saturday and Sunday 2pm). Tickets are available at www.BangkokStudio41.com or by calling (02) 218 4802.
