Missing People – Cut Short At Leeds Playhouse

Missing People is the first co-production between Leeds Playhouse and Kani Public Arts Center Japan, following its debut in Tokyo at the New National Theatre.

Missing People was performed on 12 – 17 March, when the Playhouse had to close.  We sympathise with all the performers, backstage crew and front of house; and of course with the audiences who didn’t have the pleasure of seeing the performance.

Missing People tells the tale of a Japanese and British family who are brought together by a cross-cultural marriage, and explores the similarities and mistranslations which some might say are inevitable in these circumstances.

Written by Brad Birch, Pinter Prize-winner and directed by Nobuhiro Nishikawa (Kani Public Arts Center) and Mark Rosenblatt (Leeds Playhouse Associate Artist), the production is the result of a creative relationship spanning twenty years and across cultures, sharing working practices and developing insight into one another’s organisations.

All is not quite as it seems within Birch’s multi-cultural family.  A young couple, Sakiko and her English fiancé Dan are visiting Sakiko’s home near Nagoya,not only to introduce Dan and his mother, Linda, to Sakiko’s family, but also so that they can plan the wedding.  Whilst all appears calm, the Japanese family is suffering from the loss of Sakiko’s brother, and she wants to know what happened to him.  The truth-seeking extends to examining her own disappearance to the UK and what her choices have meant.

The Missing People creative team includes Rumi Matsui, a Tokyo-based set designer and scenographer; Japanese artist Rie Nishihara, who has designed the costumes; lighting designer Elliot Griggs; sound designer Matt Padden; movement by Sachi Kimura; script translator Keiko Tsuneda; and translator in the room Mikiyo Usui.

The production is part of a series of official public events that make up the Japan Season of Culture, which aims to build public support ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.  Missing People is supported by the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation.

Missing People, Courtyard Theatre, Leeds Playhouse

Box office 0113 213 7700. Book online leedsplayhouse.org.uk

Rehearsal photograph is Simon Darwen (Dan) and Susan Hingley (Sakiko), provided by Leeds Playhouse.

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