CAT TOWN

WORKS:

Overview:

This work is a walking immersive theatre experience that transforms a familiar city into a stage, quietly reshaping the audience's perception. Wearing headphones, participants are guided through the streets by the voice of a poet, the story's protagonist. Through the poet's perspective, ordinary alleyways, sounds, and the presence of passersby start to feel unfamiliar. The audience is drawn into another world, Cat Town. They witness a mysterious ritual performed by a group of women, as their human selves slowly transform into cat-like creatures. Then comes a realisation: they, too, have unconsciously been walking in the same rhythm and in the same path as the women all along, At the heart of the work lies the fear of unconscious change. The experience of drifting into an otherworldly realm without realising it echoes contemporary life, where AI increasingly guides people's choices, creating the illusion of agency while subtly directing their paths. Inspired by Hagiwara Sakutarō's novel Cat Town, the work alters perception through atmosphere and embodied experience, ultimately leaving audiences with a profound question, ""What does it mean to be human?"

Keyword:

Philosophical
Original
Small Cast
Thought-Provoking
Mysterious
For Adults
Immersive Theater
Social Issues

Performing Group:

daisydoze

Genre:

Immersive Theatre

Status:

Time:

45 min

Dialogue:

Japanese/English

Subtitle:

Japanese/English

Capacity:

20 to 40

Cast:

5 to 15

Synopsis:

Deep within Shimokitazawa lies a mysterious, cat-haunted realm. Under the full moon, a poet, searching for his lost romanticism, wanders the ever-changing town.

“Walking is the only way I can escape reality,” he says.

Drawn in by the poet, I begin walking beside him along a straight path that was once a railway track, following the
moonlight deeper into the night.

The poet slowly begins telling me about the legends of the Cat
Town.

There is a town, where the people are possessed by cats, he
says.

As I listen to his voice and match my footsteps with his, I realise that my perspective is slowly merging with his gaze.

Does this come from my own will.
Or am I being unconsciously forced to see these things.

As I get more worried about getting lost, I realise I am in another world, Cat Town. The women here repeat the mysterious and spiritual ritual. They gradually transform to be no longer human, into cat-like beings.

And I realise as I watch them:
I have been breathing the same air, walking the same steps, going in the same direction as them, and unconsciously, I have stepped into a world where people aren't people anymore.

Concept:

The theme of this work is the ""transformation into something no longer human.""

As the audience walks through a real-life town, they unwittingly find themselves lost in the “Cat Town.” Though the familiar scenery should remain unchanged, the atmosphere of the town begins to shift ever so slightly, and amid this sense of unease, the audience themselves begin to transform into cats.

The original book, Hagiwara Sakutarō's short story Nekomachi (1935) was written on the eve of war. We believe the story use the cat to portray a disturbing situation where people unconsciously choose the same path. This production connects this worldview to the present day, in a society where everyone's behaviors and values are gradually becoming homogenised by algorithms and AI.

Are we actually choosing our own paths as we believe we are? By using the format of immersive theater set within an actual city, this production transforms the audience from mere observers outside the story into active participants.

By turning into a cat, the audience experiences the uncanny feeling that everyone is moving in the same direction. The audience will journey from reality into another world, then be relieved when they come back to the city, making them relalise and question things in actual society.

Crew & Cast:

Yui Takeshima

Book / Director
Kaori Kondo

Creative Producer / Costume Design
Maiko Ino

Cast（Blue Cat）
Hayato Mori

Cast（Poet）
Maiko Ino

Dance Director / Choreograper
Hiroki Kosaki

Sound Engineer

Company Profile:

daisydoze

daisydoze is a creative collective dedicated to developing a distinctly Japanese approach to immersive theatre. Making visible the nvisible, the company creates experiences that transform how audiences perceive the world. Using the city itself as a theatrical space, daisydoze researches the history, memory, mythology, and landscape unique to each performance site, weaving these elements into every work. Through the city's atmosphere, sound, perspectives, and the audience's physical movement, familiar streets gradually become places where past and present, reality and imagination, merge together. The company's practice combines nonverbal performance, dance, song, and theatre, with sound, video, and installation, creating immersive experiences that resonate across languages and cultures. daisydoze's work has received recognition at major art festivals and cultural events in Japan and abroad, including the Grand Prize at DIG Shibuya, the Grand Prix at the Festival des Architectures Vives, and selection at Arts Maebashi Ghost Exhibition, Moon Art Night Shimokitazawa, and Roppongi Art
Night.

Performance Record:

2025

Staged in Moon Art Night Shimokitazawa

This Year's Other Works:

CONTACT:

SOIL is a JPASN project dedicated to bringing Japanese theater to the world.
We serve as the liaison for contracts and communications with international partners and actively promote the participation of Japanese productions in overseas theater festivals. If you have any questions or feedback about SOIL,
please feel free to contact us using our contact form.

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Overview:

Keyword:

Performing Group:

Genre:

Status:

Time:

Dialogue:

Subtitle:

Capacity:

Cast:

Synopsis:

Concept:

Crew & Cast:

Company Profile:

daisydoze

Performance Record:

This Year's Other Works:

CONTACT:

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