Supermarket satire
To celebrate the 160th anniversary of Thai-Japanese diplomatic relations, the Japan Foundation Bangkok is presenting renowned Japanese playwright and director Toshiki Okada’s Super Premium Soft Double Vanilla Rich at Chulalongkorn University’s Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts until Sunday.
While many may have missed his play Five Days In March at Patravadi Theatre’s Studio 1 in 2010, some are already familiar with it through a novella, which has been adapted from the play, in the Thai language. From an intense exploration of a relationship, Okada turns to the issue of consumerism in Japan in a satire set in a convenience store.
“With the earthquake and nuclear catastrophe six years ago, I thought this terrible thing would encourage people to change society in a wonderful way,” said Okada. “Consumerism is a big part of these terrible things but nothing has changed. And the sense of desperation made me write the play.”
What’s striking and can’t be found in the book is Okada’s incorporation of dance-like physical movements of his actors when onstage. Okada said that human movements have the ability to tell different things from the speech. What’s also interesting is his use of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered
Clavier collection to accompany 48 scenes of the play. “Because supermarkets are a necessity for the Japanese,” explained Okada when asked about his choice of setting. “And Bach is the opposite to supermarkets in every kind of way, and I’d like to make this nonsensical contrast.”
After the premier in 2014 at Theater der Welt festival in Mannheim, Germany, the play took part in many international festivals, including the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT) and Festival d’Automne de Paris.
In 1997, Okada began what would later become his theatre troupe Chelfitsch. Other than his 2004 critically-acclaimed work Five Days In March, which won the 49th Kishida Drama Award, his collaborative works include Freetime (2008), Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, And The Farewell Speech (2009) and Ground And Floor (2013).
Okada said that the experience of touring many places has paved the way for how he approaches his work.
“The concern has changed to that of who is the audience in my mind,” explained Okada. “It used to be mostly Japanese who live in Tokyo and speak Japanese. But now it’s totally different, and this changes things like the theme chosen or the criteria I use while directing.”
Super Premium Soft Double Vanilla Rich is being st aged until Sunday at 7.30pm (2pm matinees on weekends) at Chulalongkorn University’s Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts. Tickets cost 600 baht (300 baht for students). Visit www.BangkokStudio41.com or call 094-931-3434.