The Japanese performance group Port B, established in 2002 by director Akira Takayama, has often worked on forgotten or unknown aspects of the city of Tokyo without using professional actors, but ordinary people who are related to each theme of the performance. Its early works were performed in theatres or in other buildings, but since 2006, the group has been mainly conducting “
tour
performances” which do not keep the audiences in a conventional theatre but rather take them outside.
Although the history of modern theatre since the beginning of the 20
th
century includes many examples of performances which have been held outside conventional theatres, Port B's “
tour
performance” follows a unique approach. The audience, either in small groups or even individually, visits various locations, always following different sources of information. Therefore, it takes part in the same performance at a different time. Each member of the audience is guided to forgotten or unknown places within the city where s/he discovers something, e.g. a new fact, or someone related to the theme of each “
tour
performance.” Moreover, participants are required to talk with group members or those people related to the performance theme in certain places. Port B's works transcend the conventional dualistic theatrical constellation such as stage
and
audience or performer
and
audience. The “
tour
performance” turns the perspective of the audience completely around , while the audience eventually revises her or his own image of the city.
The effect of this revision has ever been increased since the project
Compartment City Tokyo (2009), because contemporary phenomena of the city of Tokyo are made the subject rather than simply its history. Port B's audience individually watches interviews on DVDs that have been conducted with ordinary people - including children
and
non-Japanese residents -
and
is encouraged to talk to some of these people. As a result, s/he gains the impression that s/he is also an element of the city, not as a passive audience member, but as an active performer. Moreover, by using social networking services such as Twitter
and
Facebook, Port B's recent “
tour
performance” refer to today's urbanized living conditions in our era of media technology. In this context
and
in terms of the reversed relationship between performer
and
audience, Port B's “
tour
performance” can be called a Brechtian Lehrstück for the 21st century. This treatment of the audience is very original
and
this is what distinguishes Port B from most current Japanese theatre groups, which make neither its audiences aware of current social
and
political issues nor encourage them to be proactive as a performer themselves.
抄録全体を表示