Glorious Day for an Unknown Woman
Japan Foundation Arts & Cultures Award
"Seductive… poetic… transformative… wistful… A commanding performer with large, expressive hands, Sakamoto moved with the energy bursts of an actor… a dramatic tour de force."
- Lewis Segal, Los Angeles Times
"Unquestionably compelling…fascinating…Sakamoto speaks entire passages with a single movement, subtly striking deep chords…an intelligent, emotionally stirring story that's wrought with pathos."
- LA Weekly
"Excellently demonstrates butoh's potential."
- San Francisco Bay Guardian
Performed at:
Santa Fe Film Festival, Santa Fe, NM
Theatre of Yugen, San Francisco, CA
Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Philadelphia, PA
Espace DbD, Los Angeles, CA
80 minutes
solo
black box or proscenium
in Japanese, French and English
A haunting and melodramatic observation on the human condition and the pursuit of beauty in the modern world. Shown through an intricate web of language, historical and cultural references and indelible stage images created with expressive light, dance, sound and music, a Japanese silent film narrator travels the world, attempting to continue to practice his lost art on obscure films and express characters searching for a pure, transcendent love. He persists, even as the eras of sound, color, big musicals and cynical alternative cinema movements rise and fall within the world film industry for half a century after his work becomes "obsolete."