The musical “Thinking Reeds” is the second original musical created by NEM KiT, a creators’ unit comprising writer/director/choreographer Rino Kumamoto and composer/music director Futa Toya. The thematic starting point of this project was the question, “What does everyone living in Japan today believe in?” At the end of 2021, participants were recruited from the public for workshops held over several days designed to explore this theme as research for the work.
For many people who identify as Japanese, the words belief, religion and god are often hazy or obscure concepts. However, this does not mean that they have no relation to individual views on life or guiding principles for living; and if you dig deeper, for some reason these concepts are a pillar that people can never give up, or people think of them as sensibilities they somehow have in common. During workshop discussions, amid gradually differing perceptions, there was even a moment when someone wondered whether it was possible that they themselves were a god. For this production, gods from Japanese mythology such as those from The “Kojiki” (The Records of Ancient Matters) and The “Nihon Shoki” (The Chronicles of Japan) were used as motifs for all the characters, and creation of the musical involved expanding the thematic scope to include family, community, roots, one’s hometown, etc. as forms of faith. As a musical originating in Japan, it constitutes a collage of mirror images, as it were, of the gods and of ourselves, interweaving seamless expression that uses numerous distinctive contemporary colloquialisms and movements, and a musical groove that incorporates sounds ranging from alternative country, locking/soul, pop and Japanese rap to folk songs.

Performers
Midori Onishi
Sayaka Okamura
Mare Kasuga
Chion Sato
Yuga Tsuzuku
tekkan　　
Moeka Fukasawa
Natsuki Yamamoto

Production staff
Script/lyrics/direction/choreography: Rino Kumamoto
Composition/musical direction: Futa Toya
Assistant: Cocoro Yamamoto
Planned, produced and organized by: NEM KiT