U.S. Debut of GODOT HAS COME Presented in Japanese In Minneapolis

The University of Minnesota Department of Theatre Arts & Dance continues their fall mainstage season with "Godot Has Come" presented by Theatre Office Natori. "Godot Has Come" will be performed on the Stoll Thrust Stage and performed in Japanese with English supertitles December 5 & 6.

"Godot Has Come" is a play written by contemporary Japanese playwright Minoru Betsuyaku. It is a tribute to Samuel Beckett's play "Waiting for Godot." In Betsuyaku's play, Godot arrives, but Vladimir and Estragon are too preoccupied with their own lives to notice. "The play is about indifference, and what indifference does to us" (Toshiyuki Natori).

Minoru Betsuyaku is considered one of the founders of Japanese "theatre of the absurd" and his writing, "Godot Has Come" included, is exemplary of the so-called "nonsense genre." He has been a prominent writer in postwar Japan, with much of his work focusing on the aftermath of World War II in his country.

This production has previously toured in Paris, Berlin, Dublin, Moscow and Sibiu.

Theatre Office Natori is a Japanese theatre company based in Tokyo, Japan. After becoming independent from a larger Production Company, Theatre Office Natori embarked on creating work that merges Eastern and Western forms and styles of theatre. Theatre Office Natori works mostly on contemporary Japanese plays because, in Japan, traditional theatre styles, such as Noh and Kabuki, are left to specific theatre companies that specialize in that sort of work. They do, however, include elements from these traditional styles in their contemporary work, which has drawn criticism and pushback from certain groups in Japan.

The works for which they are most known are adaptation of plays by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. They adapt Ibsen's plays to Japanese contexts using the stylistic elements of traditional Japanese theatre.

IF YOU GO:

"Godot Has Come"

By Minoru Betsuyaku

Presented by Theatre Office Natori

Performed in Japanese with English Supertitles

Presented on the Stoll Thrust Stage, Rarig Center

330 21st Ave S, Minneapolis MN

Tickets: $17, $12 staff, $7 students

December 5, 2017 at 7:30pm

December 6, 2017 at 7:30pm

z.umn.edu/Godot

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