Experiment on the unchangeable

It’s a risky experiment that Japanese theatre-maker Takuya Murakawa undertakes in this production. Even for him, who sees the theatre as a research institution, pursues radical conceptual approaches and incorporates destabilising elements of chance into his work, it’s a pretty big risk to recast the main part of his play every night. Moreover, he sends this main character onto the stage with only minimum instructions and hands over control almost completely. Because that’s exactly what this is all about: the moment when you have no control anymore, when you can’t help yourself anymore. It’s about the work of caregivers and the situation of the people being taken care of, which means more than just being fed, washed, looked after medically. INDEPENDENT LIVING is a play about communicating with someone who can’t talk, about the relationship to someone who barely responds, about the greatest intimacy and the greatest distance between two people.