Special interview with the triple-award winning play "Desktop Theory"! What is the theater company "Breaststroke Main Store" that received a full house ovation along with the play?

Breaststroke Honten looks back on the Kamosai performance and its appeal

-First of all, congratulations on winning the triple crown.

[Matsumoto] Thank you. I'm especially happy about this out of all the activities we've done so far. The reason for this is that we had a bitter experience at the "Sengawa Theater Drama Competition" held in July 2017. Six groups, including "Breaststroke Main Store," participated, but we were the only group out of the six that did not win a prize, and we received very harsh criticism. That experience and trial and error led to us winning this Kamosai, so I feel very happy.

I think this is all thanks to my encounter with Takeshige's work "Desktop Theory." I was so happy to have the opportunity to perform such an interesting piece.

But to be honest, I also wanted to win the Actor Award. "Breaststroke Main Store" is a theater company with only actors. How far can the actors go without a playwright or director? We were particular about that, and we all came up with the direction and script from scratch and worked on it. In that sense, this theater festival gave us some challenges to tackle in the future.

-What are your thoughts about the play "Archive Theory," which you directed and starred in?

[Suzuki] After receiving the script, the members shared their honest impressions, and what I felt was that it was a work that could be approached in various ways. The story progresses as a novelist, an editor, an aspiring novelist and his wife cross paths with reality and the world of fiction, but the boundary between reality and the world of fiction is not clearly defined. In other words, the decision is left to the performers. That is the difficulty and the depth of this work.

If you think about it, theater itself is that kind of art. Even if there is a theme, the way the audience perceives it is as varied as the individual. Theater is something that moves each person in a different way. In that sense, I felt that "Desktop Theory" was a truly theatrical piece.

[Matsumoto] I was in charge of directing this production, so I had to properly convey the merits of the work. At first, I felt a lot of pressure from that responsibility. However, during the performance, I felt that the audience was accepting what I had intended, and that gave me confidence.

Also, it was a work that changed our preconceptions in a good way. "Breaststroke Main Store" is a company with only male actors, so we didn't perform works that required female roles. We had our own preferences about that. But when I read "Desktop Theory," I thought that in order to properly convey the appeal of this work, female performers were essential. So I threw away my previous preferences and asked Hisakado-san, a friend from my trainee days, to participate.

[Hisakado] The performance was scheduled for late January, but I was suddenly contacted in early December, so I was a little surprised (laughs). I was also hesitant because I had never appeared in a work with a 20-minute limit. However, we have been friends since our training days, so I was very happy to be able to appear in a work directed by Matsumoto-kun.

[Matsumoto] And as a result of thinking only about the work rather than our own preferences, we received good reviews. I feel that this is important for us. Up until now, we had only worked out our direction together as a group, but this gave us the feeling to think more purely about the work and work on it without being too conscious of our preferences.

-Aside from winning the award, your theater company must have gained a lot from the festival. What kind of theater festival is Kamosai for performers?

[Matsumoto] It's a wonderful theater festival. Theater companies from all over Japan and overseas can gather, and we can also enjoy the performances of each actor. It was a very valuable opportunity for us.

Normally, there is no opportunity to see so many works at once, and there is no chance to interact with theater companies not only from all over Japan but also from overseas. The competition itself is attractive because it allows us to perform on the large stage of KAAT's large studio in front of many people, but above all, it is stimulating to encounter other theater companies and their works.

For example, the Korean team "Theater Troupe Dokan" and their work "Alternative Family Ecology Report". I felt that the quality of the work was high, and at the same time, there was something good about it that was different from Japanese theater. Specifically, it was "leadership", and the members' movements were very well coordinated, and it was clear that they were acting with a different consciousness than the performers in so-called small Japanese theaters, where each performance is produced as the main focus. It was very educational to be able to experience such differences directly.

[Suzuki] I think it's wonderful that such a competition is being held in Kanagawa and Yokohama. The prefecture and city have also taken the initiative to create an environment that I am very grateful for as a performer. Also, although it may sound a bit abstract, I felt that the large studio at KAAT was a "comfortable stage" to perform on. It's not a matter of size, but the performers can easily immerse themselves in their performance. It was a very attractive place to perform!!

-Are you thinking about participating in the fourth event?

[Everyone] Of course! (laughs)

[Suzuki] Among the criticisms I received this time, there were some comments about my acting. In my case, it was about my voice, but I will use that experience to improve in the future and hope to participate again next year.

- Please give a message to theater companies that are considering participating.

[Maruyama] Rather than a message, this is just what I feel, but it's a wonderful experience to be exposed to the performances of other theater companies. I especially felt this way after seeing the performance of "Kamejito" from Shimane Prefecture, who performed "Sake, Soba, Men and Women". It's a great experience to be exposed to performances that you don't have now, so I hope many theater companies will try their hand at it.

2nd performance "Enoe wo Nareite" at Waseda Little Theater Dramakan Photo: Kitahara Mikio

Why is Breaststroke Honten a theatre company made up of actors only?

-As you mentioned at the beginning, I heard that Breaststroke Honten is an actor-centered theater company without a scriptwriter or director. Why is that?

[Suzuki] It all started with Matsumoto's thoughts. First of all, all of us were trainees at the Bungakuza Theater Research Institute. That connection led to the formation of Breaststroke Main Branch in 2015. However, we didn't have the current stance from the beginning, and when we first formed, we performed with pre-existing scripts. A while later, Matsumoto suggested that "in order to enter society as an actor, each individual must be able to be independent." So, for about two years until now, we have been operating as a theater company where the actors think and act in everything. For example, we once created an omnibus-style play in which each person brought scenes and lines from movies that had influenced them.

Each person looks at themselves and pursues theatrical expression from scratch. Through failure and success, they are able to gain experiences that cannot be gained in a normal theater company, and they are also able to thoroughly hone their own unique acting skills.

-It's a commitment to growing as an actor. What do you think are the strengths of each member?

[Matsumoto] Ogawa-kun is good at playing "passionate roles," such as the strong acting that appears in the works of Tsuka Kohei-san. Suzuki-kun is an actor who is intellectual, or rather, who can speak his lines logically. And Shishikura-kun has a very strong personality and a unique atmosphere.

[Shishikura]... (laughs).

[Matsumoto] So, he is an actor who can make even the smallest of words feel charming. And Maruyama-kun... he is usually rough around the edges, but he is strong in real situations.

[Maruyama] (laughs) Is that a strength?

[Matsumoto] He's unconventional, or should I say unpredictable, but that's his biggest charm. He's small in appearance, so he's quite popular with the audience.

In this way, the strength of "Breaststroke Main Store" is that we have members who have different strengths and can utilize them. We can flexibly plan the work, such as who takes the initiative depending on the content and scene of the work, so we can carry out a wide range of creative activities. We wanted to delve deeper into that, so as Suzuki-kun mentioned earlier, we have been working on writing the scripts ourselves.

Stopping, worrying, and being guided. An up-and-coming theater company makes a new start

-I heard that the next production you're going to perform will have a script by a playwright, just like this one. Has there been a change in direction?

[Matsumoto] It was largely due to a number of connections. What we gained in the two years we worked as an actor-led theater company was very big. However, as I mentioned at the beginning, the "Sengawa Theater Drama Competition," we were not able to show the results well on stage. So, there was a time when I was worried about the direction of the theater company and whether it was okay to continue like this.

From that point on, I decided to once again face the playwright's words properly as an actor, and my decision to participate in Kamosai was actually thanks to a comment I received from Atsuyuki Nakano, program director of the Kanagawa Arts and Culture Foundation's prefecture-wide expansion project.

Nakano-san happened to be watching the recent Sengawa Theater Drama Competition,
The message was, "Each actor has their own potential. That's why it's a shame to leave things as they are now. They need to find a playwright." This made perfect sense to us, as we ourselves had been at a loss as to what to do next.

And now we have the new "Breaststroke Main Store."

The first of these is "Balk," which will be performed at the Waseda Small Theater Dramakan from February 16th of this year. The script was written by the up-and-coming playwright Hiroo Koshi, who was happy to take on the role after learning about our past activities. It's a very interesting play, and our acting has evolved even further thanks to it, so I hope many people will come and see it.

-Finally, please tell us the kind of actors you aspire to be and what your theater company's goals are.

[Suzuki] I have a habit of looking at things objectively. When I'm acting, I'm not only interested in myself, but also in how the entire work is progressing. I feel rewarded when I realize that I'm successfully supporting part of that big flow. So I want to be an actor who can handle and support any work.

[Ogawa] I want to be an actor who can communicate. For example, when acting out the act of "cutting," what exactly do you cut? Whether the actor has a clear image of what you want to cut or not can make a big difference in how it is conveyed. I want to be an actor who can clearly and naturally convey any expression to the audience.

[Shishikura] He is an actor with his feet on the ground. For example, perhaps Kirin Kiki. Just by standing there, that person can convey an atmosphere to the entire space. Also, although I don't aim for that, there are moments when I feel like I am "empathizing" with the other actors while acting. I can't put into words what I'm feeling, but I want to cherish the emotions of those moments.

[Maruyama] He's an actor who can naturally convey emotions. I want to hone my acting so that I can express emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, etc. in a way that the audience can truly empathize with.

[Matsumoto] Theater is the "art of words." And it is moving to try to express things that cannot be expressed in words, such as the subtleties of people's hearts and emotions, through words. I would like to continue to pursue this idea of "using all my words to constantly portray people's hearts and things that we can only imagine."

The theater company's goal is to perform overseas. The name "Breaststroke Main Store" was chosen with the intention of eventually performing overseas. By using kanji, "Breaststroke Main Store" gives the company an identity as a Japanese company, and we want to be active on the world stage. Also, when we think of the word "breaststroke," we have in mind the achievements of former Japanese national swimmer Kosuke Kitajima. If you hone your skills, you can overcome differences in physique and athletic ability and compete on the world stage. I think the same is true for theater.

They hope to perform their act on a stage overseas in the not-too-distant future.