Strange, but true: These days, the chance of seeing a quality Japanese "kitchen sink" (domestic) drama about ordinary people's everyday lives is rarer than the opportunity of watching yet another reworking of Shakespeare, Chekhov or Tennessee Williams. Now, though, and until the end of the month, theatergoers have the chance to enjoy a first-class example of this neglected genre, in a reprise of acclaimed playwright Ai Nagai's 2001 award-winning "Konnichi Wa Kasan (Hello Mum)" at the New National Theater.
Nagai, 52, sets her story in a typical household in downtown Tokyo, where she vividly brings alive a series of episodes and weaves them together with her witty and incisive humor. Just as Yasujiro Ozu's films about ordinary folk find appreciative audiences both at home and abroad, so, too, the beguilingly mundane goings-on here touch universal chords that resonate far beyond the Tokyo shitamachi where the play is set.
For the most part, the drama plays out in the living room of a little wooden house where the heroine, an old widow named Fukue Kanzaki (Haruko Kato), has lived for years. Neighbors are forever popping in and out. Cluttered and homely, the set designed by Hajime Ota transports us right there, offering a glimpse of neighboring houses, clothes hung out on a rooftop and the steps going up to an apartment behind.