うなぎの回遊 La Migration des anguilles

Eels from Hamamatsu, in Shizuoka Prefecture, are unique in that they lay their eggs thousands of kilometers from the Japanese coast; however, once they hatch, the young eels travel the opposite route and return to live in Japanese waters. Director Natsuki Ishigami draws parallels between this fascinating journey of the serpentine fish and the comings and goings that characterize human life. In particular, she recounts the migration of Japanese laborers to Brazil, which began around 1870, and explores the social implications of their descendants’ return to the archipelago. What effects do these movements have on the construction of identity and on intergenerational transmission? Brazilians of Japanese descent share their life stories directly with us on stage in this production, where the imagination at play blurs the boundaries between humans and animals and profoundly questions what it means to be human.