Doughnuts

by Toshiki Okada / Thalia Theater Hamburg / invited to Berliner Theatertreffen

Director Toshiki Okada
Stage Design Dominic Huber
Costume Design Tutia Schaad
Music Kazuhisa Uchihashi
Lighting Design Dominic Huber / Thalia Gaussstrasse
Dramaturgy Makiko Yamaguchi, Julia Lochte

Johannes Hegemann
Maike Knirsch
Björn Meyer
Toini Ruhnke
Steffen Siegmund
André Szymanski

The world is like a doughnut: lots of edge and a hole in the middle. An empty space that grows ever bigger, with the increasing erosion of all certainties. A perfect image for a modern phenomenon: A species takes over a foreign living space and causes confusion. A bear in the supermarket, a mutating virus or social media without a heart. It reaches a point where nobody knows anymore whether their own way of thinking is still valid – not least because humanity demands a redefinition of its values at high speed. Or even: because humans lose the connection to speed.

Invited to the Theatertreffen 2022
Judges’ statement:

“A foray into cutting-edge absurdist theatre: For ‘Doughnuts’, Toshiki Okada gathers together an illustrious group of internationally renowned, brilliant Japanese characters in a hotel foyer. Sophisticated, cosmopolitan types, representing either the academic establishment or the business elite, or both, we’re not exactly sure. It’s only something banal that slows them down – their taxi doesn’t arrive, possibly because of the fog outside. They can only wait, talk and move. They deliver sentences while performing complicated, highly-concentrated choreography from conflicting yet perfectly organic arm, leg and hip contortions. On top of this they build complex, incredibly precise sentences. They weigh up whether it would now be better to take the bus or wait a few minutes longer for the taxi, approaching the issue with steadfast rationale and relentless kindness. This regularly leads them to cleverly evaluated alternatives, which are so effectively blocked that nothing actually happens. Only the hotel sauna and the wifi function properly here: the world of doughnuts is smooth and circular, with a hole in the middle.”

„Ein wirklich schöner Abend, ein besonderes Theatererlebnis. Ebenso ausdrucksstark wie zart, ebenso komisch wie klug.“ - Stefan Forth, nachtkritik.de, 22.1.2022

„Okada (...) erweist sich in seiner ersten Arbeit am Thalia Theater als kluger, lebensphilosophischer Formexperte. Vom Inhalt bis zur Inszenierung ist der Abend konsequent durchchoreografiert und meisterhaft von einem hochkonzentrierten Ensemble präsentiert.“ - Annette Stiekele, Hamburger Abendblatt, 22.1.2022

„Ein Glücksfall“ - Heiko Kammerhoff, Hamburger Morgenpost, 24.1.2022