Director: Madoka Okada & Savita Rani
Group: Kaden Theatrical Art Company, Katsushika, Japan
Language: Japanese, English & Hindi
Duration: 50 minutes

Commissioned by the Japan Foundation, the basic idea for this performance came from women, who have been physically and mentally exposed to a violent situation, even in the recent past. The primary objective is to focus on women from two different cultures, lifestyles and points of view. The purpose is to re-discover concepts of the feminine body and mind in both Japanese and Indian contexts, and also to find new possibilities and acknowledge self-awareness through different backgrounds.

In order to understand the cultural differences between Japan and India and share the same image among actors and directors, a short script based on the work In the Grove, by Japanese writer, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, was used. This story is about a man and a woman who are attacked by bandits in a grove, and who eventually come to different conclusions about what happened, based on their perspectives. The complexities of the plot reflect the parallel complexities of different identities in today’s world.