Like Family

Synopsis:

Since 1989, there have existed in Japan a number of agencies that provide ‘rental families’.

A client who has, say, lost a loved one and is finding it difficult to cope will, in consultation with the agency, choose one of their actors who can most closely ‘impersonate’ the loved one.

For an agreed fee (the service doesn’t come cheap), the actor (or sometimes actors) will arrange to meet with the client, either at their home or elsewhere, for a meal, a movie, a board game, some TV or simply a conversation.

Over time, the actor will be able to fine tune their ‘performance’ to best suit the needs of the client, the theory being that, with the passage of time, the client can be weaned slowly from their dependence on the surrogate.  That said, it’s not all that uncommon for clients to end up marrying their surrogates.

Since 1989, the service has been broadened considerably to include all sorts of other roles (employers, jilted lovers, friends, consumers, etc.)

Of course, Japan is a very different country from Australia – indeed, the ‘Western’ notion of ‘the family’ had no defined or legal counterpart in Japan until the time of the Meiji Restoration, when the concept – together with a word for it (kazoku) – was first introduced.  Up until that time, people lived in large houses whose occupants were not necessarily related by blood.  Indeed, the continuity of the house (ie) was seen as more important than blood kinship.

Cultural differences notwithstanding, however, the issues thrown up by the concept of a ‘rental family’ and the preconceptions that such a concept invites us to question proved irresistible to this particular non-Japanese playwright.

Character Breakdown:

The play is a 3-hander: 2 females, 1 male

WOLF HOFFMANN – 50

AMY – 47

DELIA – 22 / COREY22 – one actor.

Running-time: 90 minutes.

Production History: Not yet produced.

Excerpt available to download for free.