Unique theatre installation experience by award-winning Japanese director and playwright coming to Lancaster

Dear Potential Foreigners by Yudai Kamisato
28 – 29 June 2024, The Storey Lancaster

• The European Premiere of Dear Potential Foreigners, a unique performance
  installation by Peru-born award-winning Japanese playwright and director Yudai
  Kamisato.
• The performance installation focuses on the themes of movement, migration and
  tourism inspired by stories heard in South America and Asia as well as locally where it is
  presented.
• Featuring Jerusalem-born stand-up comedian, former human rights lawyer,
  journalist and Guardian writer Daphna Baram

Following presentations in Japan, Brazil and Peru, the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA) and its Cultures Research Centre is bringing the European premiere of Dear Potential Foreigners, a performance installation conceptualised, written and directed by award winning Japanese director and playwright Yudai Kamisato. Born in Peru to Japanese parents and based in Japan, Kamisato’s works deal with the theme of crossing borders, based on the stories he collects while visiting various places in South America and Asia. Kamisato will be in Lancaster for a two-week residencyworking on the theme of ‘movement’, ‘migrants’ and ‘tourists’ with Jerusalem-born stand-up comedian, Daphna Baram and visual designer Chengyi Zhou. Their collaboration will culminate in a unique experience within the gallery space of The Storey in Lancaster. The installation will be open for six hours with performances approximately every two hours. Yudai Kamisato, director and playwright said: ‘This work has been inspired by my own travels and stories collected in South America and Asia. I am hoping to collect more stories in Lancaster. My work raises many questions: can tourists really remain carefree and easy? What is the difference between immigrants and tourists? I am hoping to have enriching conversations about identity, migration, tourists and the current situation in the world with Jerusalem-born stand-up comedian Daphna. I invite audiences to join us on this journey.’
Prior to the performance installation, there will be a series of talks and workshops as part of the Japan-Britain Contemporary Theatre Exchange on 14 and 15 June 2024 in Lancaster, 19 June in Salford and 22 June in London during PSi #29 Assemble! conference in association with LIFT Festival.

The creative team also includes as producer and for artistic research support Beri Juraic and stage manager Anja Bryan-Smith. The project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council through the North-West Doctoral Training Partnership, The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, the Daiwa-Anglo Foundation, The Japan Foundation and Lancaster University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences through its Postgraduate Research Funds.
Yudai Kamisato is an award-winning Japanese theatre playwright and director born in Peru and
based in Japan. His works on the theme of crossing borders have been presented at prestigious international theatre festival such as the Autumn Festival in Paris, Kunsten Festival des Arts in Brussels and Sydney Festival. He won the first prize in the Toga Directors Competition (2006) and the prestigious Kishida Kunio Prize for Drama for The Story of Descending the Long Slopes of Valparaíso (2018).

Tickets can be purchased via Ticketsource here.