One Small Step

Written and directed by Kato Takuya
Cast:  Susan Momoko Hingley, Mark Takeshi Ota, Jay Faisca
Producer: Umeda Arts Theater

Charing Cross Theatre
(27 September-9 October 2024)

Review by Michael Tsang

Umeda Arts Theater teamed up with Charing Cross Theatre to bring two Japanese plays to London in September 2024. The first of the two, One Small Step, written and directed by Kato Takuya, is a sci-fi work set in near-future Japan exploring the ethics and gender politics of human colonisation in space. The play only has two main characters, Narumi and Takashi, both scientists participating in an experimental project to send human subjects to moon to live. When Narumi finds out that she is pregnant, the question is no longer whether to give birth to it, but also where, when, for whom.

Many countries have been addressing issues of gender disparity and inequality, so the subject matter itself is nothing new. A day after this reviewer watched the play, the Japanese national TV station NHK ran a feature on how Japanese women were still hugely disadvantaged in the workplace compared to other G7 countries, especially after childbirth. On one level, this play reminds us that this problem is still stubbornly present in Japan, and it is high time Japan’s cultural scene addressed this issue persistently.

In this vein, the couple is more believable if one considers them Japanese, albeit unconventional in some ways. The husband appears respectful towards his wife, but makes rash and selfish decisions without consulting his significant other. Beyond the façade of suppressed calmness, he makes two emotional outbursts that reminds one of the potency of male violence. The wife is a clear-headed career woman, well-versed in prejudices faced by women and especially career women in Japan and elsewhere. Susan Momoko Hingley in particular offers a stellar performance and plays the wife character almost with an affective sensibility, as if the play struck a chord with her personally.

But in an incredulous scene where the two start raising their voices at each other leading to the husband’s uncharacteristic bellow, it is she who first apologises immediately. The man might have been saying logical things and the woman might have been hysteric, but had this happened to a highly educated, well-mannered couple in the West, I suspect the man might be the one making the first move to apologise for the shouting. It is moments like these that remind us that the problem of gender, in Japan and beyond, goes further than equity in statistics and is essentially a problem of assumptions and attitudes.

Despite this, the play works because the speculative setting approaches the issue from a special angle that not even the most progressive nation on this planet has been able to solve. In other words, the play does not only operate on a transnational, multicultural logic (which would spotlight Japan’s gender disparity), but enhances the dilemma to a planetary level, foreground the ethical dilemma of being the first to raise a child on resourceless moon.

Milla Clarke’s set design is particularly notable. The minimalist stage is appropriately near-future since, although it looks almost pristinely white, the props are all high technology, from the vacuum robot and printer to laptops and the frosted glass on a toilet cubicle. The main stage is actually a revolving stage that turns as the play progresses, echoing circular orbits, and is enclosed by a white barrier on which characters can sit. The stage floor, painted in white, has a slightly grained texture, perhaps alluding to a moon-like surface. The most brilliant use of technology, however, is the two hanging screens above the set, projecting the live feed of two video cameras that often deliberately zoom in only on Narumi. Not only does this divert audience attention, but we are essentially gazing at the female character all the time, and even at some of her body parts sometimes, complicit in adding wordless pressure onto her.

Japanese theatre has received rising attention in London in recent years, with both high-profile productions such as Spirited Away and more avant garde shows such as this one. Interestingly, the themes explored in this play draw parallel with this situation, as noted by the programme notes: ‘what would happen if these Japanese creators staged their works on the Moon? In other words, if the UK is the Moon and the audience its inhabitants, how would they feel seeing a work from Earth – or in this case, Japan?’ This experimental exchange of theatre is like the conquest of the moon, where projects such as this one by Umeda Arts Theater attempt to increase visibility and awareness of Japanese works by bringing them to the vibrant London theatre scene. One Small Step was followed by Tattooer, a play by Kaneshima Takuya and inspired by the eponymous short story by Tanizaki Jun’ichiro which ran between 14-26 October. Here is hoping these are the first of many to come.