Mononoke

Mononoke This is what the ghosts that nest in people and introduce curses are called in Japan. Takako, a hardware saleswoman by profession, got one of these. She works in sales, sells iron cans made from centuries of Japanese craftsmanship and lays an iron egg in the tea water in the evening. She drinks the tea and then has sex with the egg warmed by the water. And even though it feels good, Takako knows that something is wrong. A fortune teller tells her what is bothering her: There is a curse on her, the curse of her father, who disappeared when she had her first period. What then begins is Takako's attempt to free herself from everything that was given to her without being asked. A surreal heroine journey through a world populated by gods, dolls and ironware, ancient myths and endless sales talks.

Japanese author and director Satoko Ichihara is one of the most important voices of a new, feminist generation of theatre makers. In 2020, she was awarded the Kishida Kunio Drama Award, Japan's most important theatre prize. She stages with a precise, incorruptible look at the banal and monstrous impositions of everyday life, at bodies that must assert themselves in a world that simultaneously shapes, utilizes and throws them away.

For her first work at the Volksbühne, Ichihara has invited Berlin-based South Korean artist Mire Lee as stage designer, whose fascinatingly lively sculptures usually play on museums. Together with costume designer Belle Santos, Ichihara draws Bunraku from the Japanese puppetry tradition and drives them into the present: bodies that grow together with dolls, flesh that grows from iron, and gods that are better not to upset.

We recommend a minimum age of 16 years to attend the performance.

Please note: Mononoke contains sexualized violencePornographic imagesAleistic depiction