Justin’s Japan: ‘One Green Bottle’ at La MaMa
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By JQ magazine editor Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02) for Shukan NY Seikatsu. Justin has written about Japanese arts and entertainment for JETAA since 2005. For more of his articles, click here.
Beginning Feb. 29, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Clubwill stage the U.S. premiere of “One Green Bottle” from writer/director/star Hideki Noda, artistic director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre.
“‘One Green Bottle’” is a slapstick comedy about a family of three that collapses in the span of one evening,” explains Noda. An absurdist gender-bending farce that illustrates our current selfie society’s relationship with consumerism and modern technology through one night in the life of a disordered family on the road to ruin, the play stars Noda (playing Boo, the mother of the family) with Lilo Baur (Bo, the father) and Glyn Pritchard (daughter Pickle). The English translation is adapted by Will Sharpe and features music based on Japanese noh and kabuki traditions, performed by Genichiro Tanaka.
“In today’s internet society, the information we receive is actually becoming more and more catered towards what we like, as opposed to the general perception that the world is saturated with too much information,” says Noda. “The more we receive this customized information and get into what we like, the more we are becoming like a ‘society of narcissists.’ That is why I would like to have as many diverse audiences as possible come to see my play.”
The show originally premiered in London in 2018, where it was called “enjoyably zany” by “The Telegraph.” Noda’s critically acclaimed production of “The Bee” was presented in 2012 by Japan Society as part of the Under the Radar Festival.
“One Green Bottle” runs from Feb. 29 through March 8 at the Ellen Stewart Theatre, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, 66 East Fourth Street. For tickets, visit www.lamama.org or call (212) 352-3101.
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