“Nocturnal Architecture” was first performed back in 1987 as a part of “[cage] & [look] Trilogy”, and brought the attention of the Japanese mind to a ‘new style of play’.
First performed abroad in 1994, changing ever since to its current shape.
The audience is made to sit inside steel [cages]. The [cages] move around as scenes progress, losing the fixed position of ‘stage’ and ‘seats’. There, in the darkness, conversation between the cast, big noises, sparks fly by.
And when it becomes lighter, the audience find themselves in an area like a building site ...
At the scene of [look], the actors stare at the audience in semi-entranced state for almost up to 20 minutes, breaking up the traditional relationship of audience as ‘viewer’ and actors as ‘subject of viewing’.
It starts a new drama, where there are no words or a story, written and acted by two ‘people’.

The main concept of OM-2 is to present before the audience a play that has never been seen before, a play that does not rely on the already - established methods of play such as proscenium theatres, acting and script (words).

There, in the darkness,...

1994
participation in Singapore Festival of Arts
First time leaving the country as OM-2. With the grateful assistance of the festival organizers and the local staff, the performance ends in a great success.
The "experimentalism" that they had been searching for applied outside of Japan also.

1994
participation in Cairo International Festival of Avantgarde Theatre
continuing to expand the "experimentalism" further in a new landscape.
Here not only the "newness" but the images that were searched for in the piece was also appraised, receiving "the Best Performance Award".
This evaluation led to the realization of "I,F" the following year, invited by the same festival

Bringing Down the Curtain
 NOCTURNAL ARCHITECTURE, for those inside the cages, proved a raw harrowing show that did away with the so-called aesthetic distance. You either loved or hated it. Many hated it at the time but fell in love with it in retrospect. And even for the spectators, pitched up high on the extra stands provided by the Japanese, or in the gallery around the open space, it was a memorable experience. They may not have experienced our physical discomfort and intimate contact with the performance, but the actors made it up by finally climbing up to them and subjecting them to the same physical and emotional invasion.
Nehad Selaiha, "Al-Ahram" Cairo, Egypt 1994.9.21

 

1995
Tokyo " Le Parade du Trioumph" performance
The policy of OM-2 to continuously evolve goes further, the piece reached a new height.
At Hosei University Hall, a very home-ground situation, removed of the shackles called oversea performance, "Nocturnal..." achieved a new scale.
Adding to it, the fact that it was called "Le Parade du Trioumph" performance, collected more interest from the normal press than ever before. Om-2 was able to cast a new question to the ordinary audience in Japan.


Amazing scene of "Stare" (exerpts)
...it was a very stimulative performance, not giving the audience their safe hideout called "seat" and even depriving them their rights to "just watch"... The relationship of audience and performer is lost. What kind of relationship will the indivisual people form? ... You realize how much us Japanese has lost eye contact in our lives... ...The performance was full of fun and questions, man-powered, not by computers, like a "dark" Disneyland.
The Mainichi Shimbun 1995.2.10

 

1995
participation in SIGMA 31
OM-2 was invited to perform at an event with 31 years of history
as prestigious site for experimental theater in Europe.
It was also a big party where avantgarde performers from all over the world met
and exchanged ideas, together with the audience that received their performance eagerly.
OM-2 received the honour of being requested to perform an extra show out of the schedule by the organizing committee of the festival, stimulated by powers never encountered before.

"Le choc des regards"
Dense et intense, foisonnant et dépouillé, le spectacle des Japonais de << OM2>> aura incontestablement marqué le festival. C'est un moment de tension presque insoutenable, où l'on quitte le registre du spectacle, de l'action vue à distance, pour être littéralement plongé dans la regard d'un acteur à quelques centimètres. Les comédiens ne craignent pas se mettre en danger, de donner à lire au plus près une émotion extrême, dont on ne sait si elle appartient au personnage ou à l'acteur.
"SUD OUEST", Bordeaux France, 1995.11.11

 

1996
performance at "The Kitchen", New York
Jumping out of the comfortable environment called "invitation by a festival"
performs a solo run in a land where leading stage arts gather.
The appraise OM-2 received was even hotter than that at home, arousing them even more.


Experimenting with Cages and Chairs
Perhaps, but the goal of "Nocturnal Architecture" was simply create a mood and to overturn tradition, whether blurring the line between actor and spectator or juxtaposing cultures by mixing a prevailing sense of Japanese order with Western staples, including the carnivalesque and intense eye-to eye contact. OM-2 kept the audience on the edge of their seats, partially because of the unique performance, partially because the benches in the cage were so uncomfortable. But that's a small price to pay. Look for OM-2 next year should they decide to perform for The Kitchen's 26th season.
excerpt from ARTS,ENTERTAINMENT & INTERNET Patrick Martins "NEW VOICES" New York, 1996.10

 

1997
invitation from the Theatrales Carthage
" how further can we go?"... the question and instinct drives them to search a new land
It was a country that opens its historic Roman remains as performing space.
A country of open-hearted, yet hard critic people.
Maybe they were also searching for something, by exposing their old inheritance to new stimuli...

 

The work of OM-2 is like a world inhabited by people living in the negative side of humans drawn out by surrealistic fresco. ...(abr)...The actors' action and performance shows the search for true human element in continuous decadence. This piece presses forward the most extreme experimentalism that theater has not yet reached. Unforetellable action and space. Shocking performance with no scenerio. This dramatic work can be intensified to movement, composition and music. Violent sounds and metallic, somehow barotic music that reminds one of chaos breaks the rules, controlling the world that has no fixed destination.
Asma Drissi, ALHAYET ATHAKAFIA, October 27, 1997

 

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