Rom HASHIMOTO x Saeborg POWER CHICKEN

Rom HASHIMOTO x Saeborg POWER CHICKEN

Rom HASHIMOTO x Saeborg
POWER CHICKEN

Overview

The first collaboration between choreographer Rom HASHIMOTO and visual artist Saeborg.
A bold new performance where dance and toy-like costumes interrogate our sense of direction.

POWER CHICKEN.
A chicken mutated by humankind to possess a greater amount of edible flesh.
Once dismissed as a “chicken,” in other words, “cowards,” this being is newly programmed to offer its body to the people, until the very end of its limits.

Created to save humanity from food shortages, the POWER CHICKEN stands as an efficient savior of our time.

Its strength and its vulnerability.
The pouring love and desire.
How long can our POWER CHICKEN continue to give?

As a part of the Geigeki Dance series, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre produces performances that bring the theatre together with rising dancers/choreographers. This year, we present POWER CHICKEN, a first-ever collaboration between choreographer Rom HASHIMOTO, known for incisive dance works that critically engage with present-day society, and visual artist Saeborg, whose extraordinary uniqueness has shaken audiences worldwide. This work is planned to premiere in February 2026 at Theatre East.

Appearing on stage are latex “livestock costumes”, worn by performers selected through an open audition, coming from diverse backgrounds. The strange yet tender, obedient yet at times frenzied behaviors of livestock animals, including cows, pigs, and chickens, pose urgent questions of where our lives would be leading towards.
Towards a Utopia or dystopia, where are we ultimately headed?
A new coming and original theatrical experience that opens up new possibilities for the performing arts is about to begin.

Conceived, directed, and choreographed by Rom HASHIMOTO
Conceived, directed, and stage designed by Saeborg

Rom HASHIMOTO

Born in Tokyo in 1995. They/them. They make highly contemporaneous works and projects on themes such as minority politics, queer activism, and decolonialism, etc., to connect theatrical works and society/cities as an extension of each other as a way of creating resistance and noise. While they use conceptual methods, they incorporate elements of pop/street culture, threaded with their sense of artistic continuity in their works. Their artistic style is characterized by presentations of new narratives on themes using in-depth composition plans that dynamically make use of theater mechanisms, site-specific space design, and approaches that unearth the theme of a work from multiple angles.

Their major works include “饗宴/SYMPOSION” at Setagaya~ (2024), “Pan” at Aichi~ (2023) and Spiral Hall (2021), and “Devil Dance” at Noge~ (2021). They were awarded the Asahi Shimbun Best Performance of the Year (2024 and 2021), Yomiuri Shimbun Best Performance of the Year (2024), the 16th Japan Dance Forum Award (2022), Outstanding New Artist Prize at the Yokohama Dance Collection 2020 Competition II New Choreographer Division (2020), and Grand Prize in the PLAY Division at SICF20 (2019).

Comment
This project started when I called and invited Saeborg to work together. We feel that an expansive multi-dimensional world will be born by crossing our perspective on the theme of minority politics on the axis of the story and concept of Saeborg’s past creative activities and works. The performers are a multi-layered group who we found through open auditions, with each and every one of them coming from different backgrounds. You do not want to miss the moment of these new “Kaiju/Monsters” born from our creative processes: our lab project.

Saeborg

Born 1981 in Toyama. Based in Tokyo. Saeborg, the imperfect cyborg, is half human, half toy.
Saeborg creates latex body suits as extensions of her own skin, deploying them in performances.
Motivated by her strong desire to transcend fixed identities such as gender and even the human body itself, she dons bodysuits that caricature sows or insects as toy-like figures, creating playful dystopias composed of the ecosystem’s basest creatures.
Recent exhibitions/performances include “Cycle of L” at the Museum of the Art, Kochi (2020), “Theater der Welt 2023” at the Zoogesellschaftshaus, Germany (2023), “Tangente St. Pölten” at the Jahnturnhalle, Australia (2024), “Engawa A Season of Contemporary Art from Japan” at the Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, Portugal (2024), “6th Athens Biennale: ‘ANTI'” at the Banakeios Library, Greece (2018), “Ultra Unreal” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Australia (2022), “Enchanted Animals” at the Kurobe City Art Museum (2024), and “Tokyo Contemporary Art Award 2022-2024 Exhibition” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2024). Saeborg is the recipient of the Toshiko Okamoto Award at the 17th Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art in 2014.

Comment
By bringing onto the stage “livestock” with constrained and deformed bodies, those unable to survive under competitive logic, and the most artificial and least self-reliant forms of life in the animal world, this work seeks to confront the emotional monsters that permeate our society and to explore alternative ways of imagining reality through a form of “Kaiju theater”.

The focus extends beyond the livestock characters themselves to include the audience as a “herd”, gradually unsettling the boundary until it becomes unclear who the true monster really is.

Through this collaboration with Rom HASHIMOTO, I anticipate an even greater sense of dynamism to emerge, and warmly invite you to come and experience the work in person.

: IWATA Yuzuha　ONUKI Tomomi　Camille　KAWAMATA Hitomi　KONNO Yuhi　SATO Yasuko
TAKAHASHI Mizuki　HATANO Hina　HARA Chisato　HIROSE Issui　MASAMUNE Aoi (SYAKE-SPEARE)
MATSUKURA Yuki　YUI Ayane　KAWAI Etsushi　UNA

○： Guidance Session for Dance Performances with touch tour available for guests who are blind or have low vision (Reservation required). *Available in Japanese only.
▲：Please note that camera will be set up in auditorium for video recording.

[All seats non-reserved (with numbered entry) / Tax included]

General	JPY 3,500
Aged 30 or under	JPY 2,500
High school students or younger	JPY 1,000

*Children not yet of school age may enter when accompanied by a guardian. Children aged 2 and under may sit on a guardian’s lap free of charge.

*Tickets for audience members aged 30 and under, as well as high school students and younger, are available in advance only through the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre Box Office. Availability is limited, and valid identification is required on the day of the performance.
*Audience members holding a disability certificate or Mirairo ID are eligible for discounted tickets. Please check the Box Office or the theatre website’s Accessibility page for details. An application in advance is required.
*Due to limited space, wheelchair users are requested to contact the Box Office (0570-010-296) before purchasing tickets.
*A hearing loop sound system will be used in designated seating areas for all performances.
*Written communication support is available at the reception desk.
*Earmuffs will be provided free of charge for audience members who are sensitive to loud sounds or have auditory sensitivities.
*Program details and performance information are subject to change due to unavoidable circumstances.
*Latecomers may not be admitted for a period of time after the performance has begun.
*Ticket reservation, purchase, or resale for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited.
*Tickets cannot be canceled or changed after purchase, except in the event of performance cancellation.
*A stroller storage area is available inside the venue.
*Please check the latest information on the theatre’s official website before attending.

*This work contains some intense or potentially disturbing content.

: Now On Sale

: Stage Manager: KAWAKAMI Daijiro (Scale Laboratory)　MORIYAMA Marie
Lighting Design: TORIUMI Saki (Lighting Lab Ltd.)
Sound Design: ENDO Yoko
Music: DJ TKD
Visual Design: HARADA Susumu
Production Manager: SHIMIZU Tsubasa (bench)　SHIBATA Haruka

Contact information
Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre Box Office
0570-010-296
10:00am to 7:00pm except for closed days

Organizer: Tokyo Metropolitan Government / Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)
Support: Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, Japan Arts Council

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