Vitalist Theatre, in association with DCA Theater, will present the U.S.A. premiere of The Ghost is Here, the story of an alarming and preposterous con-artist promoting a grim scam: selling the dead.
Written in 1957 by one of Japan’s most revered modern dramatists, Nobel Prize nominee Kobo Abe, The Ghost is Here runs at the DCA Storefront Theater, 66 E. Randolph St., in the heart of Chicago’s downtown theater district, from January 12 through February 19, 2012. Tickets are currently on sale.
With flair and panache, con-artist Oba – played by returning Vitalist actor Jamie Vann – develops an increasingly absurd scheme whereby war-weary and financially stressed villagers sell him pictures of their dead, only to be charged exorbitant prices when they seek to retrieve them. The wrinkle in the racket is the “agent” who represents the ghosts. Eventually, the prospect of sellers’ remorse prompts a stampede on the market, thereby seeming to assure Oba’s fortune in the best wheeler-dealer, robber-baron tradition.
The Ghost is Here is set in the ruins of occupied, post-WWII Japan when the war-ravaged empire was forced to grope its way toward national redefinition. Suffering a loss of tradition, a devastated economy and a realignment of global power brokers, the villagers teeter on The Edge of a plunge into unregulated and rapacious capitalism.
Constructed in the manner of a Japanese graphic novel, the play has moments of stylized song and dance, gallows humor and surprising poignancy woven around stark themes that resonate in America today. With echoes of Brecht, The Ghost is Here is deadly serious while witnessing the ludicrous flim-flam man and the innocents caught in his web.
As Vitalist Artistic Director Elizabeth Carlin Metz suggests, “It’s as if Kobe Abe, writing in the 50s, foresaw the American (and world) financial and cultural crisis of the past decade: Enron, WorldCom, unemployment, poverty, Wall Street, Bernie Madoff…. The list seems endless.”
Vitalist Associate Artistic Director Jaclynn Jutting directs a multicultural ensemble of 11 actors, bringing Abe’s cautionary tale to life with an award-winning design team: original music by Kevin O’Donnell, sound design by Gregor Mortis, set design by Craig Choma, lighting design by Lee Fiskness, costume design by Rachel Sypniewski, and musical direction by Ethan Deppe. Vitalist co-founders Elizabeth Carlin Metz and Robin Metz serve as Artistic Director and Executive Producer. The Ghost is Here is translated by Donald Keene.
Kobo Abe (1924-1993) was a critically acclaimed Japanese writer, playwright, photographer and inventor. Nominated multiple times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Abe’s novels and plays are characterized by calm observations and avant-garde techniques. Central themes in Abe's work are loss of identity, alienation, isolation of the individual in a bizarre world, and the difficulty people have in communicating with one another. In the West, Abe is best known for his novels, such as The Woman in the Dunes (1962), one of the premier Japanese novels of the 20th century that garnered Abe the Yomiuri Prize in 1962, and The Face of Another (1964). In the 1960s, Abe adapted several of his novels to film including Woman in the Dunes (Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film), The Face of Another, The Pitfall and The Ruined Map. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1977.
Donald Keene is an award-winning scholar, teacher, writer, translator and interpreter of Japanese literature and culture. Keene was University Professor Emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia University, where he taught for more than 50 years. He has published 25 books in English on Japanese topics, and more than 30 books in Japanese. Keene has received numerous accolades including the Yomiuri Prize in 1985 (Keene was the first non-Japanese to receive the honor). In 2008, Professor Keene received one of Japan’s highest honors, the Order of Culture (Bunka Kunsho), presented by the Japanese Government, and became the first foreign national to receive such an award.
About Vitalist Theatre
Now in its 15th year of award-winning ChicaGo Productions, Vitalist Theatre has a commitment to plays of international scope, compelling ideas, muscular language, visceral performances and lyrical design. For information, visit vitalisttheatre.org.
