Le goût de l'autre

“The Taste of the Other” by Shiho Kasahara is a one-act play that explores, through the sensory and everyday interactions of a duo—“SHE” and “HE”— the invisible aftermath of trauma inspired by the 2011 Tohoku triple disaster (earthquake, tsunami, Fukushima). 

Structured as numbered fragments centered around a printer—a symbol of mixing and contagion—the play interweaves anxiety-inducing office scenes (mixed printouts, stress management training, event cancellations), awkward dinners at restaurants, introspective monologues, and haunting olfactory memories—notably the scent of red wine associated with the mother of the female character “SHE” during the earthquake—a traumatic echo that permeates shared bodies and spaces.