Glacier or Iceberg? Spatial, Temporal, and Contextual Distance in an International Performance of Okada Toshiki's Time's Journey Through a Room

Okada Toshiki's play Time's Journey Through a Room was presented in English translation in New York in 2018. Changes in direction and temporal distance from the 2011 disasters, but particularly in local context, produce a difference in meaning, understanding, and purpose from the play's Japanese productions. A US audience has a changed relationship to the play's subtext: complex conflicts in attitudes toward disaster depending on temporal perspective. A ghostly character not only holds open space for the deceased in the aftermath of the March 2011 disasters in Japan, but also the possibilities of responses no longer available in the present. What are the pitfalls and values of presenting this recent Japanese work in New York? Investigating questions about subtext and international production leads to examination of further questions about subtext, domestic reception, and the structure of the original work.