In many ways theatre activity during the pandemic is characterised by the lack of shared space. Nonetheless, some Japanese theatre makers have used the opportunity to re-think the possibilities of theatre in this new context. Such is the case of Yudai Kamisato’s Khao Khao Club (2020) and Kamome Machine’s Moshi Moshi telephone performance series (2020-2021).

Yudai Kamisato, Peruvian-born Japanese playwright, finds inspiration for his work through travelling. Kamome Machine’s work deals with the presence of the body in society and the intimacy of the performer and the spectator. Border closures and social distancing in both cases could have entirely halted their creativity. However, early on during the pandemic, both Kamisato and Kamome Machine’s director Yuta Hagiwara re-imagined theatre from ‘a place of seeing’ to ‘a place of seeing through listening.’ Their sonic, immersive and postdramatic performances revert to the idea of spectator as performer whilst also questioning the identity, private/public space and even the need for a visual experience of theatre.

Although aural theatre is nothing new, the pandemic has highlighted the need to engage with the audience differently. Through comparative performance analyses of the Kamisato and Hagiwara’s work and the critical-contextual reflexivity, this paper will explore how listening instead of seeing can make the absent performer/spectator body present, how these performances make the audience work at a distance and what ideas are transmitted through them.