Stage Play 'Spaceship Chawanmushi': Actors Become Ingredients Themselves, Audience in Standing Ovation as They Sink in Zero Gravity

A revolution in theater. The new stage production depicts making chawanmushi aboard a spaceship, but the climax features all actors dressed as shrimp and ginkgo nuts, slowly sinking inside a giant bowl. Faced with this ultimate realism, audiences can no longer decide whether to applaud or burst into laughter.

2025-08-10

Translations: JA

Culture Kaleidoscope

Stage Play 'Spaceship Chawanmushi': Actors Become Ingredients Themselves, Audience in Standing Ovation as They Sink in Zero Gravity

A beacon of revolution has been lit in the theater world. The new stage production “Spaceship Chawanmushi” by the avant-garde theater company “Fiction Frontier” is blowing audiences’ minds. While the story depicts making chawanmushi aboard the International Space Station, the climax is overwhelming. All actors transform into ingredients themselves—shrimp, ginkgo nuts, shiitake mushrooms—and slowly sink into a giant bowl. Faced with this “metaphysical realism,” audiences find themselves standing between moved applause and uncontrollable laughter.

The production, which opened at Shimokitazawa Astro Hall, is the latest work by Thai-born director Tennoji Gaeng, hailed as a genius of contemporary theater. The story’s framework—“astronauts struggling to recreate their hometown dish ‘chawanmushi’ in the confined space of the cosmos”—appears at first glance to be a human drama. However, Tennoji’s direction soars far above our expectations, breaking through the stratosphere.

The scene in question arrives in the finale. A giant chawanmushi bowl, 5 meters in diameter, sits majestically at center stage. From above, actors suspended by what’s billed as a “pseudo-low-gravity wire system” with NASA’s technical cooperation descend quietly and solemnly. They are no longer human. They are shrimp with perfectly recreated plump texture, ginkgo nuts radiating bitter presence, shiitake mushrooms that surely have absorbed the savory broth. They speak no lines, merely dedicating themselves to sinking into the sea of heated egg custard.

“Chawanmushi is a microcosm. The way individual ingredients establish their identity through thermal energy from the chaos of egg liquid, then quietly sink, is truly a metaphor for our life and death,” Director Tennoji passionately explains in the performance pamphlet. To embody this profound(?) theme, the actors’ preparation has been extraordinary. Lead shrimp actor Joji Ebisawa (45) reportedly didn’t move from in front of the spiny lobster tank at the aquarium for a month. Newcomer actress Anna Shiraishi (22), playing the ginkgo nut, tearfully shared at the post-opening press conference, “To express the ginkgo’s unique bitterness and addictive quality, I read Camus’s ‘The Stranger’ 100 times.”

Expert opinions are divided on this overly avant-garde attempt. Theater critic Jujuhiko Hasumi unreservedly praises it: “This is not theater, it’s a phenomenon. By actors becoming ’things’ and abandoning subjectivity, they entrust all interpretation to the audience—a masterpiece of post-immersive theater.” Meanwhile, a JAXA spokesperson responded to our inquiry with extreme composure: “It’s a very interesting attempt, but scientifically, in zero gravity, convection is difficult, so ingredients would either mix uniformly or remain floating, and basically wouldn’t sink.”

Yet this scientific contradiction seems trivial before the enthusiasm. On social media, #SpaceChawanmushi is trending, with praises (or are they?) flying: “I don’t understand the meaning but my soul was shaken,” “So surreal it’s come full circle to art.” The “Cast-Signed Kamaboko” (limited edition) sold at the theater lobby reportedly sold out on opening day.

The enthusiasm shows no signs of cooling, and the company has already announced plans for their next work, “Miso Soup in Orbit ~~Tofu and Wakame’s Rendezvous~~.” The frontier of theater is expanding its territory far above our dining tables. Will this grand attempt bring new artistic nourishment to humanity, or will it end as just a grand case of indigestion? Amid the whirlpool of applause and laughter from the sold-out audience, the answer remains dissolved in the golden sea of dashi.

Stakeholder Comments

Director Tennoji Gaeng: “The audience no longer merely watches. They become the chawanmushi itself. This is the ultimate empathetic experience I aimed for.”
Shrimp Actor Joji Ebisawa: “Bending my waist at 90 degrees, sinking slowly. This is the state of shrimp I’ve reached after 45 years as an actor.”
Ginkgo Nut Actress Anna Shiraishi: “If my existence could add a bittersweet accent to this chawanmushi… I’d be satisfied.”
Theater Critic Jujuhiko Hasumi: “Becoming an ingredient. This is the ultimate deconstruction of the actor’s body in the 21st century.”
JAXA Spokesperson: “The laws of physics don’t bend for stage direction. By the way, chawanmushi is not currently adopted as space food.”
Stage Equipment Manager: “Wire adjustment is key. Shrimp is heavy, but mitsuba is light. It’s a daily quiet battle with physics.”
Chawanmushi (Concept): “I never thought I’d go to space. And so philosophically at that. Japanese food culture has finally come this far—I’m deeply moved.”
Gravity (Concept): “I didn’t expect my absence to be interpreted so artistically. It’s a bit complicated, but occasionally yielding the spotlight isn’t bad.”
Audience Member (30s, Office Worker): “I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, my emotions glitched, so I just stood up following the person next to me.”
Dried Shiitake (Merchandise): “I was bought. I smell of signature ink. Will I be used to make broth from now on?”