Science-fiction”Kappa”【空想科学劇『Kappa』】

Based on a story by RYUNOSUKE AKUTAGAWA
Directed by KATSUHIDE SUZUKI
Music by GORO OSHIMA

[CAST]
NAO ORIYAMA as Number 23
KOHEI AOKI as Baggu
MINEHIRO KINOMOTO as Rappu
RYU KAWAGUCHI as Tokku
SHINPEI ICHIKAWA as Geeru
KONG KUWATA As Maggu

[SHOW DATE & VENUE]
5th – 13th June 2021 at Shinagawa Prince Hotel Stellar Ball / TOKYO
25th – 27th June 2021 at ROHM Theatre Kyoto South Hall / KYOTO

[About novel “Kappa”]
Kappa (河童) is a representative novel written by the Japanese author Ryunosuke Akutagawa. The work poignantly criticizes and satirizes the society of the time by using a fictional creature called kappa. In a sense, it would be said to use a sci-fi approach. Akutagawa was well versed in English and American literature and had a free command to the English language. The skills affect his unconventional ideas and criticisms that were far from Japanese, and the created universality across generations in the work, and it became one of the timeless masterpieces of modern Japanese literature.

[STORY]
A psychiatric patient, who is known only as “Number 23”, tells the story of a time he visited the land of the kappa.

He had lost his way in the mountain, and was surrounded by a group of the strange creatures, who then showed him around their home. He found that the world of the kappa often appeared to be the opposite of how things were in the human world. For instance, in their romance, the female kappa pursues male kappa. Number 23 became familiar with Baggu who is fisherman, then started to live there. Number 23 also encountered a poet Tokku, Geeru who is a capitalist, Rappu who is a student, Maggu and He’s been through a lot. Maggu, a philosopher writing a collection titled The Words of a Fool, tells the line “A fool always considers others fools.” “Kappas are less happy than humans. Humans are not as evolved as us.”

In any case, in the world of kappa, humans “common sense” is not applicable. The fact reveals hidden trap from humans’ common sense and obviousness.

On his return to the real world, Number 23 muses that the kappa were clean and superior to human society.

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