Dramaturgies of crossing borders

This first in-depth exploration of works by the award-winning Lima-born Japanese playwright and director Yudai Kamisato unfolds at a moment when migration and displacement of people is affecting the planet and humanity. In the context of Japan’s shift towards becoming an immigrant country, Kamisato’s work based on stories and episodes collected in Japan, South America and Asia, grapples with the contradictions of being both an insider and an outsider. At the same time, his plays give voice to migrants, tourists and ordinary people amid the planetary crises. At its core, this study investigates the paradoxical relationship between the desire to know the other and the fear and anxiety of not knowing when being in proximity to the other. My original contribution to knowledge includes two key concepts: dramaturgies of crossing borders and the errant tourist. Kamisato’s work not only crosses geographical borders but jumps between genres and styles with each new production. I contextualise Kamisato’s writing and directorial strategies within the paradigm of postdramatic theatre (Hans-Thies Lehmann) extending the paradigm beyond its Eurocentric origins by embracing its openness and ambiguity. Kamisato’s artistic trajectory moves beyond conventional ideas of Japanese identity, re-thinking theatre as a place of seeing through listening and doing in the moment of assembly in shared theatre space. Furthermore, the concept of errant tourist serves both as a theoretical framework and a method, describing both the spectator and the theatre-maker as potential foreigners who unsettle rigid cultural and political structures through recurring mis-deliveries and misunderstandings. This study demonstrates that every presence or absence of elements or voices in Kamisato’s stage work is a socio-political critique and a commentary on theatre as a medium and an institution. Combining rehearsal and fieldwork notes, interviews, performance analyses and Kamisato’s own writing, this research addresses the lack of engagement with contemporary Japanese theatre in the English language and contributes to emerging fields of rehearsal studies and studies of theatre and migration. More importantly, it embraces the seemingly non-essential acts of ‘errantry’ or mis-delivery in theatre and everyday life.