It is a rare thing to find any actress of middle years who has never been out of work for more than six months. Especially one willing to explore both biculturally and bilingually her country's history and the sensitive subject of postwar relations.
Keiko Katsukura was on her way to rehearsals when we met last Monday. We were both a bit sleepy -- me jet-lagged after the long flight from London, she from pure hard craft. "We open next week at Pocket Theater in Nakano. We fine-tune the script as we rehearse, so it's very intense work. That's how Elizabeth, Masako and I work together, constantly revising and tightening the script."
Elizabeth Handover, an English actress, Masako Miyazaki, a Japanese theater director, and Katsukura are the core members of Tokyo Actors Repertory Company. TARC's latest play, "Women and Socks," is the second in a trilogy titled "Conversations in Time" portraying a hundred years of the evolving dynamics between Japanese and Western women.