Performance by Theater Company RINKOGUN in Tbilisi

～DA-RU-MA-SA-N-GA-KO-RO-N-DA～

The Japanese Theater Company RINKOGUN, sponsored by the Agency of Cultural Affairs of Japan, will participate in the 2011 Tbilisi International Festival of Theatre (September 14 - October 8, 2011). The play titled DA-RU-MA-SA-N-GA-KO-RO-N-DA will be performed by RINKOGUN as follows:

Time: Sat. September 24, 2011 17:00-

Cultural Center 'TBILISI ART HALL'

(Address: Tsotne Dadiani Str. 26, Tbilisi)

* Will be performed in Japanese (with Georgian and English subtitles).

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About the Theater Company

The Theater Company RINKOGUN was established in 1983 and has since played a lot of original and enthusiastic works with high level of social awareness, experimentalism and power of expression. Most of its plays are written and directed by the Company founder Mr. Yoji SAKATE. The Company's activities have received wide international acclaim, and it had performed not only in Japan but also in 18 cities of 11 foreign countries. The Company dares to deal with a range of controversial and, at times, even taboo topics, and thus always receives popular attention along with the critical praise as one of the most prolific and political theater groups in Japan.

The piece to be played in Tbilisi this time: 'DA-RU-MA-SA-N-GA-KO-RO-N-DA', is also written and directed by Mr. SAKATE, and it is dedicated to the landmine issue. This play was awarded with the Yomiuri Theater Awards for Screening Committee Special Award in 2004.

About the Performance

'DA-RU-MA-SA-N-GA-KO-RO-N-DA' (literally meaning: 'the Daruma doll has fallen over') is the name of a children's tag game in Japan. The ten syllables in the title represent the ten counts used by the person who is "it". A variety of ten-count children's games exist all over the world, with names and styles differing from country to country.

Here, the Daruma-game is played in a landmine field. This performance consists of different plots in which the following characters appear:
- two officers of the Japanese Self-Defense Force who were dispatched to a foreign country on a humanitarian assistance mission and find themselves in a landmine field;
- a Japanese gangster who got ordered by his boss to set out on a journey to find landmines;
- a woman with an artificial leg who believes that her destiny is to destroy all landmines;
- an ordinary man who works for a landmine manufacturing factory and his family, and;
- a group of refugees who were forced to leave their village because of the increased number of landmines.

Mr. SAKATE has added a taste of entertainment and sense of humor to this serious theme. 'DA-RU-MA-SA-N-GA-KO-RO-N-DA' is re-created as the people's prayer to bear the reality in the battle field.

This play premiered in February 2004 in Tokyo.

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For tickets, please contact the following ticket office:

-until September 9: Marjanishvili Theatre

Marjanishvili Str. 8, Tbilisi

Tel：295-5966

-September 10 and later: Cultural Center 'TBILISI ART HALL'

Tsotne Dadiani Str. 26, Tbilisi

Tel：215-5530