Northeast Japan theater group devises virus-safe plays for audiences of one to peep on

Ryuta Yaguchi is seen speaking in the small room serving as the stage for the “Peeping Tom” plays at the Kiwamariso arts venue in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, on June 12, 2020. (Mainichi/Nobuyuki Hyakutake)

The two holes used to watch the “Peeping Tom” plays are seen from inside the performance space at the Kiwamariso arts venue in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, on Jun 12, 2020. The different heights allow the viewer to stand or sit. (Mainichi/Nobuyuki Hyakutake)

ISHINOMAKI, Miyagi — The coronavirus pandemic has been very hard on the theatrical arts, a medium that exists to be seen by people gathered together. But dramatists in this northeastern Japan city have come together to devise short plays that make the most of the limitations brought by the virus.

With infection prevention in mind, the theater group in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, has developed brief pieces for an audience of one person, who watches the show through a hole in the wall. Aptly, the plays are presented under the title “Peeping Tom,” and performed every Sunday from June 14 to July 26 at the Kiwamariso arts venue in the city.

The plan for the show came from Ryuta Yaguchi, 37, head of the Ishinomaki theatrical arts association. He said it was inspired by difficulties putting on performances during the spread of the coronavirus, when he thought, “This is the same Ishinomaki that has overcome all kinds of difficulties since the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami (which directly hit the city), so what could we do now?” From around April, he and his colleagues started looking for new ways to put on shows.

They looked into doing online performances, but decided not to, saying, “That sense of a back and forth between the audience and actors, of being in the same space as someone and having that live feeling, was something we really wanted to hold on to.” Then he remembered the “hole in the wall plays” that had previously been performed in Tokyo and other places. This gave him the idea to merge the concept with coronavirus countermeasures in a one-show-one-viewer format.

The stage is a small room measuring about four and a half tatami mats (about 7.3 square meters). Two 4-centimeter holes, one at standing height and one at sitting height, have been made in a large board in the entrance. The audience of one then watches a piece of between five and 10 minutes through those holes.

There are as many as 12 performances per day, and the four plays showcased are all about Ishinomaki, with plots including life after the earthquake, and another about a young person coming back to live there after spending time in a big city. With the exception of the episodes linking each story, the plays will not be shown online, making the viewer looking in “the sole witness.”

The plays are free to watch, but booking ahead is required; performers, too, are working voluntarily. Although there is no direct income coming from the shows, Yaguchi said, “Even after the disaster in 2011, plays in Ishinomaki continued in small spaces. I want to show that at this time, too, Ishinomaki is a place that weathers adversity and where theater continues.” He hopes that the activity will lead to recognition of the value of performing arts culture to the city, and that the government might provide financial aid.

Sixty-nine-year-old Yuko Mikuni, who will be performing on stage on the first day, told the Mainichi Shimbun, “I was moved by Mr. Yaguchi and the other young people’s strong resolve to ‘live as performers.’ It’s challenging to bring my moods up and down in a short period of time, but it’s fun to do it. I think the passionate feeling that they won’t let this theatrical culture die will be conveyed to the person watching.”

(Japanese original by Nobuyuki Hyakutake, Ishinomaki Local Bureau)

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