Kenichi Tani

Kenichi Tani

Playwright, director and translator. Born in Fukushima Prefecture in 1982 and raised in Kashiwa City, Chiba Pref. Tani is the leader of the theater unit DULL-COLORED POP. Tani majored in Theater arts at Meiji University and took courses in Theatre and Drama Study at University of Kent at Canterbury in the UK before starting his own theater company in Japan. His theater style has been described as “a fortunate mix of innovative methods and a knowledge of classical theater” (Ai Nagai) and his creative style as a playwright and director has been widely praised as pop and rock and literary and wins praise in fields ranging from small-theater productions to commercial theater.

In 2013, his Japanese translation and staging of Freud’s last Session with the Japanese title Saigo no Seishin Bunseki – Freud vs Lewis (The Last Psychoanalysis: Freud vs. Lewis) won him the 6th Yushi Odajima Drama in Translation Award and the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Arts Festival’s Excellence Award.

In recent years he has also collaborated on numerous works with renowned foreign directors, serving as translator, script writer and directing assistant on their productions. They include Silviu Purcarete’s production of Richard III, Philippe Decouflé’s production of “Watashi ha Shingo, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s production of PLUTO, David Leveaux’s production of Eternal Chikamatsu and others. Representative works in recent years include the KAAT production of The Threepenny Opera (translation, stage script, direction), the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre production of Every brilliant thing (translation direction), DULL-COLORED POP production of the Fukushima Trilogy and many others. The Fukushima Trilogy (1961: Midnight Sunrise, 1986: Moebius strip, 2011: The Words Want to be Spoken) is the winner of the 64th Kishida Drama Award. The second play, 1986: Moebius strip is the winner of the 23rd Tsuruya Namboku Memorial Award.

DULL-COLORED POP
https://www.dcpop.org/