The title of Yudai Kamisato's new work "+51 Aviacíon, San Borja" references his grandmother's address in Lima and the international telephone dialling code of Peru — but that only hints at the unusually cosmopolitan background of this 32-year-old Japanese playwright and director who also has relatives in Okinawa, Hokkaido and the United States.
A resident, like his parents, of Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture, Kamisato formed his Okazaki Geijutsuza theater company in neighboring Tokyo in 2003. With it, he soon built a formidable reputation for socially acerbic and sometimes absurdist works, and the troupe featured prominently from 2010-12 in Festival/Tokyo, Japan's biggest annual arts event which, until recently, was known for showcasing cutting-edge works.
When we met last week in a cafe near his Tokyo rehearsal studio, Kamisato — perplexingly sporting a zip-up top featuring the flag of Chile — was soon wondering aloud: "How do people decide where they come from?