Shu Matsui

Shu Matsui

Born in Tokyo, 1972. In 1996, Matsui joined Oriza Hirata’s theater company Seinendan as an actor. Later he began playwriting and directing as well. After premiering his plays Passage (winner of the 2004 New Playwright Award of the 9th Japan Playwrights Association Awards), World Premiere (2005, finalist for the 11th Japan Playwrights Association Awards), Basement (2006) and Shift (2007) in the independent production series for young Seinendan members, Matsui left Seinendan to start his own company Sample with an opening production of his play Calorie Consumption in September 2007. His plays have won acclaim particularly among those of his own generation for the unique twists they put on conventional values and the nihilistic worlds he depicts by breaking down the illusions of human relationships and communication. As the opportunities for his works to be performed abroad increase, his plays Shift and Calorie Consumption have already been translated into French and Basement has been translated into Italian. Matsui won the 55th Kishida Drama Award for Jiman no Musuko (My son, my pride) (2010). Recently, Matsui’s career includes an increasing number of activities outside his own company such as writing plays for other companies, including Seichi (Holy Ground) for the Saitama Gold Theater and Mirai wo Wasureru (Forgetting the Future) for Bungakuza. He has also directed plays in translation such a Sarah Kane’s Phaedra’s Love , written numerous short stories and essays, taught at the university level and appeared in television commercials, movies and plays.