Once, people had more time to think about the meaning of life -- or its meaninglessness. Poor students brooded over their ambitions in 4 1/2-tatami rooms, undistracted by computers and 3G keitai. People dreamed of a peaceful future while huddling sheltered during the war. Long, long ago, some may have wished for a good hunt on the morrow as they wrapped up warm in dark caves. In these present, hectic times, though, opportunities for solitude and reflection are few.
"Yaneura," which won several awards when it premiered last year, is a series of sketches about people inhabiting -- either voluntarily or compulsorily -- a small atticlike space. Set in the near future in Japan, and performed here on a stage barely 4 meters wide, the action all takes place in a "Yaneura" -- the trade name for a trapezoidal, self-assembly "room" the size of a small tent that's now selling well to young people via the Internet.
No prizes for guessing that some of the play's episodes are about hikikomori (meaning "withdrawn"), a label applied to people, typically in their teens and 20s, who shut themselves in their rooms and refuse to have any contact with society, sometimes for several years. (According to a report in The Japan Times on April 22, a million Japanese currently suffer from this affliction.)