Event Details

Work-in-progress performance about Nanjing Massacre. Collaboration between Lancaster University's Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts and Tokyo-based theatre company Kamome Machine.

In the summer of 2022, the Company, led by director Yuta Hagiwara, embarked on research for a new project to address the often-ignored historical issue of the Nanjing Massacre. The Nanjing Massacre was a tragic moment in world history involving mass killings of Chinese citizens by Japanese soldiers in 1937, a few years before the Second World War witnessed by British and American journalists. Three years and four different phases later, the Company comes to Lancaster for a two-week residence to explore the embodiment of this issue from perspective outside East Asia. During the residency, the company is holding a open rehearsals and final work-in-progress showing of a performance due to premiere later this year. This is a unique opportunity to witness and participate in their collaborative process of sharing thoughts through theatre.

Kamome Machine was founded in 2007 and is led by director Yuta Hagiwara. The award-winning company explores public and private space through their works that centre on the human body. Their major works include site-specific Waiting for Godot in Fukushima (2011), staged shortly after the nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima, Oregayo (2015 -) which uses the Japanese Constitution as its text and Telephone Theatre Series performed during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2016, they won the Toga Theatre Competition’s Excellence Award for Happy Days (Act Two).

The company is also holding open rehearsals from 28 April, every day 2:00 - 5:00pm

In cooperation with Cultures Research Centre, Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, (Lancaster University)

Supported by Arts Council England, The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, Saison Foundation