Theatre as a Refuge in ‘Wareware no moromoro’ by Hideto Iwai

Part of the Festival d’Automne and Japonismes 2018, Wareware no moromoro (our stories) is a Franco-Japanese collaboration. Daniel Jeanneteau, artistic director of the Théâtre de Gennevilliers in the suburbs of Paris, invited Japanese playwright Hideto Iwai to co-produce a new play. It is inspired by his own life, after he spent four years of his adolescence as a recluse, staying indoors playing video games and watching violent sports before finding refuge in theatre.

‘Identify with what is happening on stage’

Wareware no moromoro offered a tender, humorous dialogue about contemporary society. For this play, his first to be presented outside of Japan, Hideto Iwai met the residents of Gennevilliers in 2017. These encounters and discussions gave rise to a series of texts that were performed by professional actors and also local amateurs. In an interview with the Japan Times in summer 2018, Hideto Iwai explained: ‘theatre makes both the actors and the audience question their own lives and identify with what is happening on stage.’

Wareware no moromoro (2018), a play by Hideto Iwai was staged at the Théâtre de Gennevilliers during the Festival d’Automne.