The Autumn Meteorite 2025 Tokyo festival will be held from October 1 to November 3, mainly at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre in Ikebukuro.
As one of the successor events to the Tokyo Festival that ran for many years every autumn, this new festival is the brainchild of its artistic director, Toshiki Okada will take over the position of TMT’s Artistic Director from Hideki Noda in April 2026.
Speaking about the festival’s “Autumn Meteorite” name at a press conference in Ikebukuro on July 23, Okada — who is a leading playwright, director and novelist, and founder of the renowned, globe-trotting chelfitsch theatre company — said: “Every concept regarding the festival will align with the word ‘meteorite’, because that word expresses how we want to function for the people of Tokyo through this performing arts festival.
“Through the word ‘meteorite’ we are delivering a message that entirely new things can happen when something that has not existed before — or wasn’t considered important before — comes along and brings with it new values.
“A meteorite is a foreign object, so we want to introduce Autumn Meteorite 2025 Tokyo as a foreign object and enjoy its new effects.
“We regard each performance in the festival’s lineup like a meteorite, and we have selected programs that could all be ‘meteorites’.
“In the performing arts, not only the performances but also the audiences are significant elements. Therefore, when we imagine a ‘meteorite’, we must also consider the audiences in that context.
“Consequently, we are placing importance on ‘non-performance programs’, such as workshops and lectures, as well as on our ‘welcome systems’ (support for visitors). This is all aimed at enriching accessibility to try and attract more people to the theatre — or more new ‘meteorites’.
“In these ways we want to invite people who have never been able to attend performances before — or those who believe the performing arts are beyond their reach – to come along and enjoy our meteorites”.
However, despite Okada’s contagious enthusiasm, it is becoming more and more difficult to envision the future of the performing arts, and also aspects of politics and society, in today’s Japan.
As a result, Autumn Meteor 2025 Tokyo clearly aims to break through that troubling atmosphere to reach the hearts and minds of a wide range of people as it bids to ignite a new era for the arts and performing arts. And that alone is exciting evidence of the theatre community’s efforts to create a hopeful future.
There are three categories of programs in the festival.
1. Performance Programs
These feature the following 14 programs from Japan and overseas:
(1) The Opening Program, titled “Another Shape of Reality/Shape of Another Reality”, is presented in the open-air plaza in front of the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre. In this, performers express in their own ways works by Saou Ichikawa (novelist), Da Vinci Osorezan (YouTuber) and Natsuko Tezuka (choreographer).
(2) “Dance Jurors’ Dance”
This new experimental dance/theater work by Toshiki Okada involves four dancers who also act and speak, and two actors who dance without speaking.
(3) “Johah”, a solo performance by the acclaimed stage, film and TV actor Kuranosuke Sasaki that is one of TMT’s especially recommended Autumn Selections, is an international co-production between TMT and Theatre National Radu Stance Sibiu in Romania.
(4) “The Bathhouse of Honest Desires” is another international co-production, this time between the Taiwanese theatre company Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters Group and the globe-trotting Japanese dramatist Kuro Tanino’s NIWA GEKIDAN PENNINO.
(5) “Weathering”
This non-verbal production by Faye Driscoll had its acclaimed world premiere in New York in 2023.
(6) “Mary Said What She Said”
Another TMT Autumn Selection, this solo performance by the famous French actress Isabelle Huppert portrays the tragic Queen of Scotland, Mary, on the night before her execution. It is directed by a renowned master of experimental theatre, Robert Wilson who passed away July 31, 2025.
©_LUCIE_JANSCH
(7) “THE THIRD HAND”
This minimalist world with fragments of objects is conjured up for Tokyo audiences by Handa Gote Research & Development, one of the Czech Republic’s leading contemporary alternative theatre companies.
(8) “Signal to Noise”
This 40th anniversary production from the internationally acclaimed popular British experimental theatre company Forced Entertainment creates a chaotic stage with all kinds of noise and sounds and movements.
(9) “YOU BALANCE”
This is a two-day mainly music event by renowned sound engineer Toshihiko Kasai. Its playlist features around 20 artists spanning traditional Japanese instruments players to stand-up comedians.
(10) “The Theater☆Sing! Dance! Grow! A Garden of Hahagokoro ~ Children’s Clothing is Reincarnation~”
Performed by the Utau-Hahagokoro group organized by actresses who are also mothers, this work sees them singing humorously about their hectic daily lives raising children while also working as actresses. For this production, if audience members bring one item of children’s clothing, a ticket for one child is free.
(11) “Things easily forgotten”
In this intriguing work created and performed by Xavier Bobés, this long-standing Catalan self-taught “scenic creator” and puppeteer uses small objects such as keychains, old photos, postcards and coins to portray the history of late 20th-century Spain.
ⓒAlvaro_Prats
(12) “under take”
A fascinating work by Ikuko Sekita, who advocates a style of “wide-angle lens theater” which aims to focus equally on performers’ bodies as well as walls, floors and the rest of the theatre space.
(13) Damien Jalet × Kohei Nawa “Planet (Wanderer)”
This is the third collaboration work between the world-famous Belgian choreographer and dancer Damien Jalet and acclaimed Japanese sculptor Kohei Nawa. Designated as another TMT Autumn Selection, it explores a zone between life and death, and that essential element for humans: gravity.
(14) “Ergonomic Embryo – Protocell”
Avant-garde artist Shin Hanagata has long researched wearable devices, and here he tries to merge with them to become artificiality and technology, rather than just using it.
2. Non-Performance Program
In its Non-Performance Program, the festival features a variety of workshops and lectures. Young theatre creators from foreign countries and festival producers and artists are also being invited to help to create an international network.
3. Hello and Welcome (Attendee Support)
The aim of this program is simply to strive to ensure that anyone and everyone can enjoy the festival to the full.
To welcome people, there will be tables and chairs in front of the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, as well as food and drink stalls. Anyone can use the space whether ticket-holders or not. There will also be an information center and ticket-sales booth.
The Attendee Support program will also provide surtitles and voice guidance for several programs, as well as childcare services and childcare workshops.
In a new initiative, the program also includes a selected number of “Relax Performances” for small children and people with developmental disabilities and those who are sensitive to sound and light stimuli, or who are not comfortable in an atmosphere where they are expected to be docile and sit quietly. This aims to create a relaxed environment by, for example, avoiding complete darkness during shows and/or softening the effects of sounds or lighting, while also being understanding of audience members speaking and moving.
All performances of Utau-Hahagokoro “The Theater☆Sing! Dance! Grow! A Garden of Hahagokoro ~ Children’s Clothing is Reincarnation~” and some performances of Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters Group×NIWA GEKIDAN PENNINO’s “The Bathhouse of Honest Desires” are designated as “Relax Performances”.
Commenting on this new “Relax Performance” initiative, Okada said: “I want to end the idea that some people have been cut off from performances for the reason that they were troublesome to others in the auditorium. This is a fundamental, artistic question regarding the performance of theatre arts.”
Performing Arts Festival: Autumn Meteorite 2025 Tokyo
From October 1 to November 3
Venues: Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre (TMT) in Ikebukuro、GLOBAL RING THEATRE, outside of TMT
For more information, visit https://autumnmeteorite.jp or call 03-6812-1663