A Japanese Named Otto

PLAYHOUSE

*Seat Z(¥1,500): Sold at the NNTT Box Office and some Ticket Pia outlets on the performance date. One ticket per person. No phone reservations.
*Same day student tickets (50% off, except Seat Z): Sold at the NNTT Box Office and some Ticket Pia outlets on the performance date. One ticket per person. No phone reservations. Students must bring a valid student ID.

This is a staging of Kinoshita Junji’s magnificent masterwork by New National Theatre, Tokyo artistic director for drama, Uyama Hitoshi, and another major production with an Asian theme.
The play, originally published in 1962, is based on the true story of a group of people who, on the eve of World War II, followed their convictions to do what they thought was right for their countries and for the world. It is based on the Sorge Incident, which has been called “the greatest espionage incident of the twentieth century,” involving a group of Comintern agents discovered and arrested just before the outbreak of war in the Pacific. It focuses on the life and activities of Ozaki Hotsumi, and the decade between 1930 and 1940 that he spent first in Shanghai and then in Tokyo.
The author does not focus on the complex drama of the spy incident itself, choosing instead to concentrate his attention on Ozaki—the Japanese called Otto—and a raw and moving depiction of his love for and despair over his country.
Kinoshita saw drama as a universe in miniature in which he could ponder the question of man’s fate, and it is this universe that is given vivid form against the backdrop of prewar Shanghai and Tokyo. The play is in Japanese, but many of its scenes involve people of a variety of nationalities in conversation in international settings, and an international cast is being envisioned for the production.
In an era in which being faithful to one’s own conscience was problematic, a lone Japanese grieved for his country and its future, and chose the lonely path of doing what be believed was right. This image asks the Japanese of today some probing and painful questions about how we should live and how we should relate to world beyond Japan.