Though she's moved from elegant arabesques to doing the washing up, former prima ballerina Tamiyo Kusakari is stealing the show in "Ani Kaeru (The Older Brother Returns)," a kitchen-sink drama playing every night through Sept. 1 at Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre in Ikebukuro.

For renowned writer/director Ai Nagai, this staging, in which Kusakari — a long-time star of the Asami Maki Ballet Company in Tokyo — plays a housewife named Mayumi, is a reprise of the work's debut 14 years ago, when it won her the prestigious Kishida Kunio Award.

For Kusakari, 48, her role in this complex work is a challenging one. Mayumi is gradually alienated from those around her after her dubious brother in law turns up to stay with them, saying he's quit his reprehensible ways. In the face of the gossip this fuels around her, she experiences disgust at the behavior of others, while at the same time having to resist the temptation to compromise her own values in order to avoid being bullied or frozen out of group-based Japanese society.