Theatre Journal

The lonely stage had an electric bass and an amplifier to one side, but otherwise, it was empty. Woman (Shiibashi Ayana) and Man (Adachi Tomomitsu) entered, followed by Musician (Jeong Jung-yeop), who began playing the bass softly. Woman and Man began chatting about a play that had been previously performed in the theatre; it was set in an apartment they once shared, and they performed as their past selves. Their conversation about an armchair, the only theatrical prop that remained after the previous show, subtly transitioned to a sofa in the apartment of their past. The meaning behind their words became blurred, leaving the audience to wonder whether they were discussing a play, their relationship, or both. Their conversation evoked feelings of emptiness that stemmed from endings: the closing night of a theatrical run, a break-up, the fading of youthful aspirations to “change the world.”

The premise might seem familiar from elsewhere in theatre history, but in Okada Toshiki’s New-Illusion, performers and theatrical props were conspicuously absent from the physical stage. At SOTA Studio Theatre in Singapore, the audience witnessed a life-sized, prerecorded performance projected onto two large vertical screens at center stage. The mini-malistic set was defined by these screens, set apart by a noticeable gap, and an overhead display for English supertitles, all dimmed in tune with the venue’s ambient lighting. Hidden speakers and microphones, strategically placed behind the screens, added depth to the sound. Even when the projected performers disappeared into the gaps between the screens or stepped outside the screens’ edges, the audience could still hear their footsteps and locate their movements in space. Using this careful visual and auditory dramaturgy allowed Okada to blur the boundaries between the video space and the physical venue, evoking the atmospheric illusion that performers and theatrical props were physically present on stage even though they weren’t.

New-Illusion, which premiered at Tokyo’s Oji Theater in 2022, is the most recent iteration of Okada Toshiki’s EIZO-Theater, which he has developed in close collaboration with video designer Yamada Shimpei. Deriving its name from the Japanese term eizō—an image that has been reproduced—EIZO-Theater emphasizes using video to project prere-corded performances in theatrical space. The concept of EIZO-Theater debuted with the exhibition Beach, Eyelids, and Curtains (2018), where six theatrical [End Page 564]

[End Page 565]

[End Page 566]

video pieces were displayed at the Contemporary Art Museum in Kumamoto, Japan. Okada then integrated EIZO-Theater techniques with traditional theatrical conventions in Eraser Mountain (2019), which featured actors on screens alongside live performers and various onstage objects. KAISOU: Layer, Class, or Hierarchy (2022), presented at the Toyohashi Arts Theatre PLAT, marked the beginning of a new phase of EIZO-Theater practice that relied exclusively on projected images. New-Illusion represents the fullest statement of the EIZO-Theater aesthetic to date.

What is the new illusion in New-Illusion? It is the illusion created by the interplay between the video space (where the illusion of theatrical acting unfolds) and the empty physical space. Or, in Okada’s own words, it is the illusion generated by an illusion. It exists in the gap between the screen and off-screen space. This dramaturgy of empty spaces, gaps, or voids is key to the creation and experience of a new illusion, which does not aim at realistic representation that immerses and overwhelms the audience. Instead, it gently invites the audience to a subtle, quiet, and...