TIME/ RYUICHI SAKAMOTO+SHIRO TAKATANI

TIME is a work in which Ryuichi Sakamoto composes all the music and develops the concept and creation together with Shiro Takatani (Dumb Type), following the performance "LIFE a ryuichi sakamoto opera 1999" staged at Nippon Budokan and Osaka-jo Hall in 1999, where approximately 40,000 tickets sell out immediately. After approximately four years of production from 2017, it premieres worldwide in 2021 at the "Holland Festival" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), one of the world's largest performing arts festivals where Sakamoto serves as an associate artist, and receives high acclaim both domestically and internationally. The Japan premiere takes place on March 28, 2024, exactly one year after Sakamoto's passing, at New National Theatre Tokyo. The audience steps into a space where only the sound of rain echoes in the darkness, and from that moment the experience of this work begins. The water surface on stage sways like a mirror of water, and a screen projects intricate visuals. Beginning with the narration "I had such a dream," from Natsume Soseki's "Ten Nights of Dreams" (First Night), "Kantan," and "The Butterfly Dream," together with texts that blend with these stories, the theme that runs through this work is "time." Performances by Min Tanaka, Mayumi Miyata (sho), and Rin Ishihara. Sound, installation, and visual art all appear in the theatrical space as multiple layers of "dreams" where light and water intersect. The "time" that can only be experienced in the theater is now recorded as video. Comes with a deluxe booklet including Ryuichi Sakamoto's handwritten production notes, stage photographs, and a contribution by Tetsuya Ozaki, with full Japanese and English text (108 pages)
Releaes Date: 2026.6.24