Gareth's Culture and Travel Blog

You might not believe this. It’s certainly one of the most surreal evenings I’ve spent in a theatre. A celebration of Japanese pop culture as a rave.

You are advised to check your coats and bags, wear a rain poncho and use (multi-coloured) ear plugs (both supplied). The seats in The Pit theatre have been covered in plastic. There’s an MC / warm-up man explaining what’s going to happen. You can take as many photos, videos or audio recordings as you like .The walls of the theatre are giant screens with continuous projections.

Twenty-five people, mostly women, rush in and start dancing, shouting and jumping around to very loud music. They walk amongst the audience, throw water, confetti and food, engaging with you close up. Glitter falls from the ceiling. There are well choreographed dance routines and ‘scenes’, one of which was a kitsch Les Mis pastiche that had me in hysterics, but some of the time it also appears to be entirely spontaneous.

In what seems like a few minutes, but was actually forty minutes, the whole audience are on the stage and the performers are in the audience. Then they disappear, the music stops and the lights go up. As you walk through the corridor back to the foyer, they are smiling at you, greeting, thanking, hi-fiving, hugging….. In the foyer, you wonder if that really happened, but you can’t stop smiling.

It was mayhem and pandemonium and I thought it was great fun – and the perfect pick-me-up after the referendum shock.