Lichtblitz is a revival of the work first premiered in 2018.
Inspired by Shōhei Ōoka’s novel Fire on the Plain and Miyako Ishiuchi’s photo series Hiroshima, the piece approaches the cruelty and absurd reality of war. When it was originally created in 2018, war still felt like something happening elsewhere—visible through the stories and presence of refugees arriving in Europe, yet not an immediate threat to daily life. Today, its presence has drawn uncomfortably close, giving Lichtblitz a renewed and urgent resonance.

Without spoken dialogue, the madness of war is conveyed through physical expression and haunting imagery shaped by Butoh and the interplay of light and darkness.

Juxtaposing scenes of a soldier on the battlefield with those of a woman living far from the front, the work examines the absurdity of life and death in moments when the body is pushed to its limits.

A soldier stands face-to-face with death.
He survives the horrors of war—
horrors that seem even worse than dying.
In the depths of darkness, he witnesses a divine apparition.

Far from the battlefield,
a devout mother loses her life without warning.

A dog,
already missing a leg,
wanders through the rubble,
sinking its teeth
into a piece of charred meat.

Performance: Maco, Hikaru Inagawa
Adina Mohr, Rareș Grozea 

Direction, choreography, light & sound design: Hikaru Inagawa
Choreography, costume: Maco

Sound & lighting operator: Tara Hanajima
Scenography reconstruction: Yoshihiro Shimomura
Live props operation: Yasuyo Uemura
Production Assistant (Front of House): Julia Kühn

Production: 4RUDE