Dealing with the apathy that has set in after the financial crisis and the natural disasters in 2011 followed by the nuclear Fukushima catastrophe, GROUND AND FLOOR is set in a future Japan. Japanese is no longer the primary language spoken and the country is cloaked in an atmosphere of impending war. Investigating the reactions to the uncertainty and the sensation of being endangered the play describes how apathy, conformity, isolation and nationalism work by telling a story of a family using different coping mechanisms to deal with the situation.
The piece centres around a young pregnant woman who wants to flee the country. Haunted by the ghost of her mother-in-law she is caught in a conflict of interest between the dead, the obligations to her homeland, and the living, the need to safeguard the life of her unborn child. Her brother-in-law has been unemployed for two and a half years and is eaten up with shame. Now he has found a job as a construction worker and has salvaged his masculine pride. He will work to rebuild the land, and when the war comes he will volunteer. Another woman (and the comic relief in the play) lives like a ghost, shutting herself off her surroundings, and feels like she is the only person left in Japan who still only knows Japanese, which makes it a bit difficult for her to communicate with others without subtitles. Bit by bit, Okada uncovers the fears, distrust and desires for reassurance hidden in the characters that seem indicative of a society of people turned in on themselves.
Since the world premiere in the spring of 2013 the play has toured in both Europe and USA.
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