Kenta Yamazaki | Lee Sojin x Taku Yamamoto "Tokyo 8:58"
The two-person play "Tokyo 8:58" by Lee Sojin and Taku Yamamoto is a lighthearted conversation between a bar worker and a time traveler.Summary
The two-person play "Tokyo 8:58" featured actor Lee Sojin and writer/director/actor Taku Yamamoto (representative of Hanchu Yuyuei). The 40-minute short play utilized the atmosphere of the bar venue, with Yamamoto handling writing, directing, and acting, while Lee managed planning, production, acting, and even provided themed food and drinks, creating an experiential performance.
The story centers on Yume Yamanaka (Lee), a bar mama, who, after closing, is visited not by the man she expected, but by Kakizaki Aji-pon-ta (Yamamoto), a time traveler dressed in a cowboy hat. The highlight is the witty, often mismatched dialogue between the two. The play shares a worldview with Yamamoto's previous work, "Ai to Seigi" (Love and Justice), focusing on the theme of "love and health."
Kakizaki reveals that in the future, Yume will be a celebrated novelist who saves many hearts, and he proposes marriage because he wants to give her a "reason to write." Kakizaki describes a future where lookism and discrimination are obsolete, and people fall in love with minds and writing styles. The words written by Yamamoto the playwright, spoken by Yamamoto the actor, suggest a tangible, better future, inspiring Yume to embrace a life dedicated to realizing that possibility.
(Source：artscape)