MONO was formed by Hideo Tsuchida ( playwright, director, actor ) in 1989 and the company has been based in Kyoto. Since 1990 we have produced more than 30 theatre works written and directed by Tsuchida, such as Sono tetto ni otokotachi wa iru to iu (1998), Sotaiteki ukiyo-e (2004) and Narubeku hade na fuku o kiru (2008). MONO specializes in situation comedies on the theme of universal human sadness, and when well-matched actors perform together and their dialogue will fill the stage with laughter tinged with pathos.

Born in 1967. Tsuchida has been handling all this company's writing and directing since he began his own theatre company 'MONO' in 1989. He has also written a lot of scripts for many commercialized theatres. In 1999 he won the 6th OMS Drama Award for Sono tetto ni otokotachi wa iru to iu (The Happy Lads) ,and in 2001 he won the 56th National Arts Festival Excellence Award for Kuzureta ishi gaki ,noboru saketachi (Running Salmon). In September 2003,he went to London and stayed for a year on the Japanese Government Overseas Study program for Artists run by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. In 2007 Sono tetto ni otokotachi wa iru to iu (English original title "Happy Lads", adapted as "It is said the men are over in The Steel Tower") was performed in New York. Tsuchida is also involved in writing many TV drama and film screenplays, including Yaku Sanju no uso ,Tensai Yanagisawa kyouju no seikatu for CX and Saito-san for NTV.

Four members of the vaudeville troupe entertaining the troops escape from an army camp and hole up in a steel lookout tower in belief that if they can stay hidden for a week they will be able to return to Japan. They spend their time bickering about trivial matters such as whether or not go and fetch water, or whether they should support the war and so forth. However, when they are joined by a deserter, Jonouchi, who tells them that conditions in the army camp have become brutal since they absconded, they feel trapped. A week later there is an exercise to flush out guerrillas and they realize they are all going to be killed. With guns pointing right at them, they begin to perform their show.

Photo：Matsumoto Kenichiro

First staged: 1998
Cast: 5 (all male)

English: available from Cucumber Ltd. (E-mail: info@c-mono.com)

This play depicts four peoples who have always been together. Two of them, however, died in an accident one summer when they were high school student...Now the four are here animatedly chatting about the past and about present issues. Yet two of them are now adults while the two who died remain eternally high school students, resulting in mismatches in their conversation. As for relationships between peoples...everything may be relative, but some ideas are just too hard to digest. Like an ukiyo-e print, it is a simple portrayal of the transient nature of life.

Photo : Yako Masahiko

First staged: 2004

Cast: 5 (all male)