Mugensha Theatre Company is based in Tokyo, but it is probably better known in Britain. The company has played three London seasons — in 2002, '05 and '06 — since it was founded by director and actor Soun Kotakebayashi in 1995 with the intention of taking contemporary Japanese drama to Europe.
The company made its debut this summer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with "The Feast of the Ants." As in all Mugensha's works, "The Feast" was created not by one writer but collectively in workshops by the company's actors. Set long ago in Arizuka (Anthill), a fictional samurai-ruled town, the morality tale tells how the inhabitants forsake farming rape-blossom for building iron foundries in a get-rich-quick scheme. After the rape fields have disappeared, however, the iron industry collapses, leaving everyone poor, idle and desperate for a miracle. What comes instead is unrelenting rain.
Before the short Tokyo run of "The Feast of the Ants" next week, Kotakebayashi, 56, spoke at the company's studio in Koenji about Mugensha's work and Japanese theater.