The Agora Theater is tucked away near Komaba Todaimae Station, just five minutes from the hurly-burly of Shibuya. It was here that I saw "Boken Oh (Kings of the Road)" performed by Seinen Dan, a youth theater-group led by Oriza Hirata, 39, who wrote and directed the play.
The theater is the realization of a dream of Hirata's father, Hirata Sr. A salaryman and keen amateur actor, Hirata Sr. built the Agora Theater -- its name means "meeting place" or "market" in Greek -- as an intimate space for performers and audiences to share their love of theater. For this purpose, the ground floor houses a theater-studies reference library and the first floor is a performance space in which there is no clear boundary between stage and auditorium.
As the audience enters and takes their seats, the actors are already "on stage," as if this sketch-style drama has already begun. The effect is like peeping into a neighbor's living room or, in this case, into one room of a cheap Istanbul hotel for backpackers. Bunk beds form the boundaries of the small acting space, and we watch the cast passing time by reading, packing luggage or chatting with the others sharing the room.