★★★

“charmingly human and unique”

“Our Cosmic Dust” takes a heavy topic and makes it light. Paradoxically, it looks at its subject matter through a child’s eye and, by doing so, tackles the mechanisms of grief and loss with a clarity and maturity that can only come from the honesty of innocence. The emotions are loud and big, but writer and director Michinari Ozawa’s play is quiet and intimate while also allowing touches of comedy to seep into the narrative – a brave choice, like someone telling jokes at a wake.

The central character is Shotaro, a curious schoolboy who spends his night counting the stars and wondering how many more unseen stars there are in the ‘dark bits in between’. Voiced by Hiroki Berrecloth, Shotaro is brought to life in puppet form. Berrecloth is pulling the strings and through his subtle and sensitive performance he layers rich expression onto the mute, blank face of the marionette. Shotaro believes his late father is up among the stars but realises that it is humanly impossible to get there to go and look for him. Instead, he opts to search for answers closer to home. ‘Where do people go when the die?’ is his recurring question.

His mother, Yoko, finds him missing one day. What is brushed over in Ozawa’s play is the unwitting selfishness of the boy – a pointed stab at the fact that the mother is not allowed, or given time, to grieve for herself. After all she is recently widowed, but the child pulls focus. Yoko has to remain useful as the mother in search of the son in search of the father. Millie Hikasa visually expresses these conflicting emotions, while also conveying the fear of a mother losing a child. The ensuing journey mercifully gives us some light relief. The characters that Shotaro, and then Yoko, meet all adopt childlike mannerisms that keep the adult world at bay. We enter a vaguely Dr. Seuss type world as we wander from the hospital to the crematorium to the planetarium.

Nina Bowers gives a delightful performance as nurse Tara who keeps her memories locked away in the silver tooth of her late mother. Sweary and naturally crude, she teams up with Yoko on their search, enlisting crematorium worker, Alastair (Hari Mackinnon), with all his fragile and tearful rashness; and finally, the matter-of-fact keeper of the planetarium, Orion (Ian Hallard in fine form). Each persona represents various viewpoints of the sweeping spirituality versus science debate. Without lecturing, the dialogue throws innocence and experience into the pit to gently fight it out.

Eika Shimbo’s video backdrops dominate the space, occupying the entire back wall. Predominantly monochrome, there is a childish simplicity to the animation that prevents the audience being fully swept into the three-dimensional world of its characters. Our imaginations are teased but the scale of the graphics sits uneasily with the piece. Too dominant to echo the workings of our protagonists’ thoughts, yet not quite grand enough to draw us into the cosmic odyssey we are promised. Tomohiro Kaburagi’s sound evokes stronger emotions, along with the music of Orenograffiti (ORENOTE) with its ethereal pads, rhythms and lush strings.

Translated from Ozawa’s Japanese original by Susan Momoko Hingley, the dialogue is sharp, and it travels well. It is difficult to disguise the over simplified sentimentality of its conclusion, however. It has come full circle during which its orbit has been more fascinating than its destination. The young Shotaro has needed guidance but seeking it he has shown that we all need it. Loss, grief and longing isn’t the preserve of the young or the old – it is universal, and Ozawa has presented this in a charmingly human and unique way.

THE GARDEN OF WORDS at the Park Theatre

★★★

“There are fine moments of humour amidst the stylisation in director Alexandra Rutter’s production”

It is a brave undertaking to lure London audiences into the theatre this summer with the promise of a show that features an awful lot of rain. It is also a brave undertaking to adapt a Makoto Shinkai film. Shinkai – animator, filmmaker, author and graphic artist – is responsible for some of the highest-grossing Japanese films of all time with his idiosyncratic and recognisable animations. But both are challenges that ‘Whole Hog Theatre’, specialists in Anglo-Japanese theatre, are not shying away from with the premier of “The Garden of Words”.

It focuses on Takao Akizuki (Hiroki Berrecloth), an aspiring teenage shoemaker and Yukari Yukino (Aki Nakagawa), a mysterious older woman he keeps meeting in the public gardens of Shinjuku City. It is the rainy season, beautifully evoked by the video projections, lighting, sound and stylised movement of the actors. There are echoes of Jacques Demy (it could almost be dubbed ‘The Umbrellas of Tokyo’), and traces of David Lean’s ‘Brief Encounter’ when the couple meet – courtesy of Mark Choi’s soaring piano soundtrack. But the overall sensation is of being drawn into a Japanese ‘anime’ art film. The merging of styles creates a profoundly hypnotic atmosphere, but one that clouds the emotional connection we would have liked to have had with these characters.

It is a simple, soft love story that subtly touches on the taboo. Takao is still a teenager while Yukari is a teacher from his school. Although their meetings are accidental and innocent. At least initially. They only meet when it rains. A literal and metaphoric ingredient for the blossoming of their friendship. They are both isolated in their own way. Back home, Takao’s divorced mother (a bubbling and eccentric Susan Momoko Hingley) is more concerned with her love life than her family, while his brother (James Bradwell) is fleeing the nest in pursuit of actress girlfriend Rika (Iniki Mariano). Like Takao, Yukari is also skipping school, having been hounded by false accusations from her students, the prime culprit being Shoko (a very watchable Shoko Aizawa). Trying to appease all parties is gym teacher Soichiro (Mark Takeshi Ota).

There are fine moments of humour amidst the stylisation in director Alexandra Rutter’s production (who co-adapted with Susan Momoko Hingley). But also, some superfluous moments of repeated movement that, although eye-catching, could be pruned. In the first act it occasionally loses its balance, like riding a bicycle too slowly. In contrast, the second act rushes to its epilogue as if an afterthought, and the interval was an unscheduled mistake. The enchantment would have kept its flavour better if concentrated in a one act performance. Otherwise, the essence of the anime art form remains as true as it can be. It recognises its limitations, and doesn’t try to overstep the small-scale setting with its vivid, slightly surreal and delicate combination of creative expertise.

KENNY’s video graphic projections work hand in hand with Cindy Lin’s set. The Japanese Garden almost origami like, comprising fringes of paper that depict both the city’s skyline and the weeping leaves of the trees. In turn they become the rain, then the tears of these lost souls who “feel they may die from the agony of love”: one of many quotations projected overhead. Passages from ‘The Man’yōshū’, a compilation of Classical Japanese poetry from the eighth century, are a recurring motif that informs the narrative, and assists the audience. Like the rain.

In fact, the rain is quite relentless. A leitmotif that adopts many shades and meanings. In the world that these characters inhabit, rain is something that people who suffer from social isolation can prefer more than the sun. “The Garden of Words” exposes the fragility of emotions born of loneliness and longing, yet just falls short of gripping the heart. The other senses are left basking in the downpour though. It is a treat to watch, even if we don’t quite connect. It is an apt synchronicity that while the characters onstage are ‘praying for the rain’, we most certainly aren’t. Especially this summer.

OUR COSMIC DUST

Park Theatre

★★★

“charmingly human and unique”

OUR COSMIC DUST

Park Theatre

Reviewed on 6th June 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Pamela Raith

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

OUR COSMIC DUST

OUR COSMIC DUST

OUR COSMIC DUST

THE GARDEN OF WORDS at the Park Theatre

★★★

“There are fine moments of humour amidst the stylisation in director Alexandra Rutter’s production”

THE GARDEN OF WORDS at the Park Theatre

Reviewed on 15th August 2023

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Piers Foley

Previously reviewed at this venue:

The Garden of Words

The Garden of Words

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