Enjoy

by Toshiki Okada, Toshiki Okada

From acclaimed Japanese director/playwright Toshiki Okada, Artistic Director of the internationally-lauded chelfitsch Theatre Company, comes a chronicle of post-college ennui and 21st Century relationships in Japan's Lost Generation. The static lives of several self-obsessed GenX manga store clerks are thrown out of balance by the presence of a younger female co-worker, who rightly makes them question the meaning of their lives in a shifting socio-economic landscape. Written in the hyper-colloquial style Okada has become famous for, this play is presented for the first time in English in a translation by Japanese American playwright Aya Ogawa, and was met with massive critical praise upon its New York premiere.

"Listless characters translate easily to a different culture, the blunt colloquial language elevates this drama into something more daring... Distinguished by a style that turns inarticulateness into the sort of poetry that rewards close listening. Mr. Okada, with the help of a very deft translation by Aya Ogawa, makes sure that even if it take a while to communicate a thought, a mood of indulgence and despair emerges clearly." - The New York Times

"Toshiki Okada's new play deserves the attention of a major theatrical event. Meditations on age, failure, and finance read clearly as existentialism for the reigning recession. Like the best works of the theater of the absurd, Enjoy turns its humility into philosophy."- Backstage

Genres: Japanese Literature, Plays

60 pages, Paperback

First published August 23, 2011

About the author

Toshiki Okada (岡田 利規 Okada Toshiki, born July 3, 1973) is a Japanese playwright, theater director, novelist, and founder of the theatrical company chelfitsch. He is known for "his use of hyper-colloquial Japanese and his unique choreography."

Reviews

[Sae-chan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoy...what?? Definitely experimental, so enjoy...

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no idea how Enjoy might play out in performance as there are very few stage directions and most of the dialogue doesn't imply specific actions, but this script reads like an ultra-casual, awkward, rambling party conversation about mundane events. I can't say I really "enjoyed" or even understood this play, but its style is certainly unique and serves its theme of aging, lonely, capitalist ennui effectively.

[James Binz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Saw the "Meat Suit - A Shit Show of Motherhood" as an Experimental Theater reading with the Playwright Center. I was not a fan. This wanted more development and work shopping in my opinion.