Play Company Presents Sakate's 'Attic;' Talkback Held 3/21

The Play Company will host a post-show talkback with Michael Zielenziger, author of Shutting Out the Sun - How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation (Doubleday, 2006), as part of its New Work/ New World Series. 

This talkback will follow the Wednesday March 21, 8:15 PM performance of Yoji Sakate's The Attic, currently enjoying an Off-Broadway run at 59E59 Theaters.  The play's subject matter will be explored as Zielenziger leads an audience discussion on Japan's hikikomori phenomenon and other current social issues.  Directed by Ari Edelson and translated from Japanese by Leon Ingulsrud and Keiko Tsuneda, The Attic opened to strong reviews on Sunday, March 4 and will play through Sunday, March 25. 

The Attic is "a surreal dark comedy that examines the growing hikikomori phenomenon in Japan, in which young people (as many as 1 million) withdraw into their rooms and refuse any contact with the outside world, sometimes for years. This award-winning play explores hikikomori as a symptom of social dysfunction in the post-modern world, and imagines the revelatory experiences of people who choose lives of confinement and isolation. Author Yoji Sakate weaves a tale about a society in which people lose the ability to cope with the pressures and complexities of everyday life.  A mysterious company sells tiny 'attics' over the internet to people who want to withdraw from society.  One man embarks on a quest to find the source of these dwellings after his brother commits suicide in one.  On the path to discovering the source are several attic dwellers including a teenage girl and a kidnapper, samurai, polar explorers, soldiers fighting a multi-national war, and many other commonplace and fantastical characters," state press materials.

The Attic plays Tuesday – Saturday at 8:15 PM, with matinees on Saturday & Sunday @ 3:15 PM at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Madison and Park Avenues) .  Tickets are $35.00.  Tickets can be purchased through Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200, www.TicketCentral.com, or the Ticket Central Box Office (416 West 42nd Street, 12–8 PM daily), or in person at the 59E59 Theaters Box Office. Student rush tickets are $5.00 (cash only, 2 hours before each performance at 59E59 Box Office).   The talkback is free to all ticke tholders. The talkback will begin at approximately 10:00 PM, immediately following that evening's performance.  For more information, please visit www.playco.org .