From 15 to 17 March 2018, the Maison de la culture du Japon in Paris presented the play Hikikomori comes out of his home by Hideto Iwai. In two hours, humor and drama alternate against a backdrop of social criticism.
synopsis:
Tarō hasn't left home for 10 years. The young man, now 23 years old, feels suffocated by his parents and is in the grip of violent crises when he sees them. For several years, they did not have the opportunity to see their son. They even take him for a thief when he comes to them, with long hair and dressed in simple boxers! Desperate, they end up asking for help from an association specializing in hikikomori. But the young man does not hear it that way.
Kazuo is also a hikikomori, but he has been living in isolation for 28 years, much to his father's despair. By dint of patience and listening to the members of the association, he finally leaves home.
Finally, Hideto Iwai plays the role of a former hikikomori. Six years ago, he left his home after 10 years of confinement. Since then, he has been working in an association with Miss Kuroki to help other hikikomori cope.
A surprising subject and a poignant interpretation
These three hikikomori destinies intersect and shock each other, each embodying a part of a Japanese societal evil.
Indeed, far from being a somewhat folkloric sociological particularity, hikikomori crystallize the malaise of the individual in the face of an ordered and rigid society. Tarō has a feeling of suffocation while Kazuo, in his search for perfection, locks on assumptions.
The hikikomori comes out of his house is a sometimes funny, sometimes sad and often squeaky play. Through the prism of these three personalities, it is the shame and suffering of families that are emphasized, as well as the fear and physical rejection of a rigid and framed society where the individual is denied and where social appearance is paramount. We are surprised to take passion for these very complex characters that the author manages to finally make very human and full of humor. We literally dive into their daily lives to discover little by little the reasons for their distress, but without ever pitying them. On the contrary, the author succeeds in instilling in us the desire to discover more about the psychological complexity of these characters thanks to the omnipresent humor of the scenes, dialogues and wacky situations typical of Japanese humor.
An original staging
The staging is particularly clever. Indeed, the set consists of a square-shaped structure on which the actors can move in order to simulate their movement from one place to another in the city or play the transition from one scene to another. This square decoration draws the contours of the room, but refers particularly to the space of the room of a hikikomori. A space where entropy and order are fought against each other, as are the incessant reformulations of the sets throughout the play…
For two hours, the scenes follow one another without noticing the transitions. Everything is done smoothly, the eye is drawn to a specific character while the others secretly modify the rest of the scenery. We are surprised at certain times by the physical change of several actors or sets. While at other times, transitions are made in the middle of a text! Great art of staging!
The characters run in all directions, push tables and chairs to create new scenes, take out accessories from who knows where to constantly surprise the audience. We laugh, we are taken to the guts, we focus on these stories whose autobiographical force we feel, we come out upset, with lots of questions in mind!
Writing a play on such a difficult societal subject could only come from an ancient hikikomori. Hideto IWAI is an author who deals in his play with a problem he has experienced himself. It is these autobiographical elements that give the play its accuracy and emotional impact. This particular piece is related to the first one he wrote Hikky Cancun Tornado where we find the former hikikomori wrestling fan.
Little known outside Japan, the phenomenon of hikikomori is rarely discussed or even approached from a cultural point of view. The play The hikikomori comes out of his house thus highlights a phenomenon still little known and poorly understood in France. Let us salute the work of the MCJP which introduces the French public to such committed pieces.
