The Saitama Gold Theater Company, supervised by 91AV原创 most famous theater director, Yukio Ninagawa, is made up of seniors — average age 75 — who were stage amateurs before they auditioned for the troupe. Now they play to thousands of paying customers every year, even overseas.
The company, whose oldest member is 89, is the subject of NHK’s “Honto ni Atta Shiawase Monogatari” (“A Story That Is Really Enjoyable“; BS-1, Thurs., 9 p.m.), which follows preparation during the three months leading up to a five-performance stand in Paris last December. The production is a play written by Ninagawa himself about two women who show up during the trial of a grandson who is accused of “destroying public order.” The grandmothers question the motives of the prosecutor and the judge.
Next month marks the 20th anniversary of the sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system by the religious cult Aum Shinrikyo, the only time chemical weapons have even been used in an indiscriminate public attack in a major international city.
TV Asahi will present a two-hour special, “Boso no Genten no Maboroshi no Kakubuso Keikaku” (“The Reckless Origin and Illusion of the Nuclear Weapons Plan“; Feb. 21, 9 p.m.), which incorporates new interviews with principals involved with the incident as well as images never before shown on television. The program endeavors to explain how Aum became a doomsday cult by talking to Fumihiro Joyu, a former executive with the cult who now heads an offshoot organization. The program also uses dramatic recreations to explain some of the more shocking elements of the group’s plan to terrorize Japan.
CM of the week:?Takarakuji
Actress Ai Sato is sitting on a park bench with a box of Valentine’s Day chocolates on her lap, impatient to dig in. She removes the lid and screams in fright when she finds a tiny man, played by actor Yoji Tanaka, embedded in the box, already digging in. “Help me,” he pleads, extending a motif that the two TV personalities have promoted for at least a year in the service of the Takarakuji lottery. In this case, Tanaka seems to have gotten himself stuck in the box in pursuit of the Megami (Goddess) Lottery, a game designed for Valentine’s Day that is worth ?70 million. Given her sour expression, Sato seems to have lost her appetite for either candy or gambling.
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