What if we were able to predict the future? How does it feel to awaken a forgotten memory? Is the future predetermined? Can rewriting the past bring happiness? These were some of the questions raised in four short VR plays presented at the Mashiro Small Theater last week under the...
Andrew Eglinton
Andrew Eglinton is an associate professor of theatre studies at Konan Women’s University, Kobe, Japan. He has published on a range of contemporary performance topics, from documentary and immersive theatre in the UK, to site-specific and physical theatre in Japan. He is also engaged in theatre in education, using theatre techniques towards second language acquisition. He is a contributor to the Japan Times stage section, and has translated Japanese plays for contemporary performing arts festivals and professional theatres in Japan, including works by Takamine Tadasu, Kara Juro, Ueda Kumiko, Matsubara Shuntaro, and Kato Takuya.
I want to share a few thoughts on a VR performance I saw recently called: Soultopia. It was created by Saeborg, an artist whose performances often use latex suits and large latex inflatables in the form of farm animals. Saeborg’s work is both playful and hard hitting in its critique...
One of the most well-known lines in Shakespeare’s plays is Bernardo’s question at the beginning of Hamlet: “Who’s there?” Who is that ‘who’ and where is that ‘there’? It is a doorway onto doubt. But it is also a question that cuts quickly to the ontological core of theatre. “Who’s...