What gave you the idea to create this work titled “Eel Migration” about people in Japan with Brazilian roots?
I moved to Shizuoka Prefecture in 2020, and though I’d heard it had a well-known Brazilian community I didn’t have chance to meet any of those people in private or through my work. That was probably also due to the pandemic at that time — but even so, I thought I should be seeing some of those people in the theatre along with everybody else.
SPAC has run outreach projects and theatre appreciation programs for junior- and high-school students for ages. As a result of so many young people coming into contact with SPAC, some of them now work here as staff or actors. With all sorts of children joining such programs at school, some develop an interest in theatre as a result — and I hope more may think of SPAC as a career option. That is one of the reasons I wanted to work with Shizuoka people who have Brazilian roots.
Nevertheless, I sometimes feel a bit uncomfortable about consciously collaborating with people from diverse backgrounds in Japan. I’d prefer it if a really wide range of people gathered together naturally at the theatre without anyone reaching out to a particular group. However, our current society doesn’t work like that, and I have not been able to create such an environment. Hence I believe I do need to engage with particular communities and invite them into the theatre, even if there is a risk of misunderstanding. So this project is part of a process of such outreach.
Speaking personally, I have always wanted to be free from roots and to cut off those I have. Due to my work and marriage circumstances, though, I started to live here in Shizuoka where my parents were born. Then I had my children, and it has become more difficult to live as an individual without any ties.
Many of the people with Brazilian roots who are living in Shizuoka have some connection to the long history of migration between Japan and Brazil. I wanted to hear their voices; how they feel about living here now. For me, theatre is the best way to communicate and listen to their voices, so I’ve taken that route this time.
Why did you choose “eel” as the motif for this project?
Before I worked at SPAC, I visited various places with my theatre company and created works as we got to know about those places. We also created theatre works with local people and presented them at places they knew in their daily lives.
In the past, I visited the Ocean Research Institute in Yaizu in Shizuoka Prefecture as one of such art projects. There I learned that eels go on a long journey through their lives and Japanese eels’ spawning grounds have recently been found. On that project, we used eel as the motif under the theme of a root we can’t actually remember, but which certainly remains in our bodies.
In the process of thinking up this current work, my question of “How do we reconnect with the place where we are now, yet we cannot choose the place we are born or where we die?” linked to the motif of an eel. This question came up when I heard stories from some of those people with Brazilian roots. But anyhow, I think most people have those kinds of questions: Where do I come from? and Who am I?
The ecosystem of eels became more dramatic the more I knew, although eels have just continued repeating the same way of living since ancient times. On the other hand, humans imagine all kinds of stories about eels and are moved by the stories. Of course it’s great if two different themes overlap exactly with each other, but I rather like the moments when there is a subtle, close gap between them. Then I try to fill the gap with my imagination. Similarly in this work, I hope that two non-overlapping themes vibrate mutually together.
Would you please tell us some things that particularly impressed you while you were doing long-term preparation for this production.
I am so pleased that SPAC actors and staff along with me — the scriptwriter and director — were able to do the research and engage in rich discussions. That was a very important thing for me. Among the most impressive experiences I had with SPAC members was being taken to the houses, offices and favourite places of people with Brazilian roots, and places where they spent their childhood. We cooked together, swam in the sea and walked in the woods together — complete with mosquito bites. We spent a lot of time together and gradually we made a fine relationship as a team. It was actually theatre in practice rather than research.
It was also a great experience for me to visit an eel farm, and to be allowed to watch researchers conducting eel surveys in rivers. Such things happen in the middle residential areas and sometimes in a river with expressways and a shinkansen running above it. So I realized that eels are living in the same space as humans. Of course, other animals and creatures are also living very close side-by-side with us, and some of them are on the way to extinction, while others have already become extinct.
I often think what an incredible world we are living in, though most of us don’t even realize it. But when I try to see things from an eel’s point of view, I think I can catch a glimpse of that incredible world. The eel farm workers and the eel researchers were very distinctive individuals, and like the eel’s ecology they were so interesting.
Message from Artists
When I took part in the eel surveys, one huge eel was left bleeding from the neck in weeds by the river. However, when a researcher released it into the river, it swam away at high speed. I was deeply moved by both the vigour and cruelty of life evident in that scene. I thought life won’t give up surviving at all costs, and once we are born we naturally go on living. We cannot choose the place we are born or die, but on the other hand our vigour won’t let us end our life so easily and we must continue to live. So I think we should praise and encourage ourselves more than we do. —Ishigami Natsuki
Ishigami Natsuki
Playwright, working mainly in the company “Pepin” from 1999. She works on plays and art-projects expressing peopleʼs alternative behaviors in cities and communities in Japan and abroad. Her recent activities include: directing Stage Art Sector in “Culture City of East Asia 2019 Toshima,” writing and staging “Oesiki Project Tour Performance ʻBEAT,ʼ” being Guest Curator for ADAM Artist Lab in Taipei Arts Festival 2019, directing “Theatre Today” in On Stage Shizuoka (FY2021) and directing “Yoroboshi”(2022), “Otsuya’s Love”(2023) and “The Kitchen of Click-Clack Mountain”(2024) at SPAC.
