The second in the series is a new work by Iwamatsu Ryo, who is active in various fields as a playwright, stage director, and actor.This will be his first appearance at the NNTT in four years.His previous work The Story of Tyzenbax Expelled from “Three Sisters,” was performed at the NNTT in April 2002 as the only new work among those included in the series “Chekhov: The Work of the Soul.” He was much talked about for his unique viewpoint of going beyond time and space to approach Chekhov’s dramaturgy using the Russian playwright’s masterwork Three Sisters as his motif and for his profound and comical acting when he appeared in the play as Tennessee Williams.This year’s series title is “Where Are We Going?”It will be interesting to see how Iwamatsu, who excels in depicting the subtleties of the human mind, will handle “memory for the future.”

daughter who has passed marriageable age leaves her car in her parental home where her mother lives alone, and moves to a large city.Her aged mother does not have a driver’s license but makes a daily habit of polishing the car and starting its engine on behalf of her daughter, who returns home from time to time.An old man living nearby, who is concerned how she is taking care of the car, sometimes comes to see how she is doing.And a car salesman calls on her almost everyday…Iwamatsu sends a message of courage from elderly persons who live by themselves, a commonplace and familiar sight today, to the coming generation of people who will live in an aging society in the future.