It was a difficult delivery. The fruit of the union between actor/director Simon McBurney, founder of London-based Complicite (formerly Thea^tre de Complicite), and a Japanese cast in Tokyo had been long-awaited, but even so it kept everyone guessing past the expected arrival time.
Before the world premiere of "The Elephant Vanishes" at Setagaya Public Theater (SEPT) May 23, McBurney made a short speech from the stage apologizing for the one-hour delay. It was, he said, because the coming performance would be the first complete run-through that even he, the director, had seen. He and the cast had been working on the piece up to the very moment he stepped on stage, he said.
"Indeed, the performance will be completed only with the audience," he added. "So please prepare yourselves to participate in this production tonight, [because] drama is not a marketing product, it's an organic thing."