The work was developed for the 2020 and 2021 premieres, based on an earlier solo piece by Maco.
Its originally scheduled premiere in November 2020 was cancelled one week before opening due to COVID-19. The postponed performances were finally staged a year later. All four scheduled shows were held, though last-minute pandemic restrictions limited audience numbers. The extended rehearsal period allowed the four members of 4RUDE to work quietly and intensively with the piece, and it was met with a warm and resonant response from those who attended.
Now, four years later, we are delighted to present the work again—both for those who were unable to attend at the time, and as a reunion with the memories formed during its creation.
The Spiral of Memory
An abandoned structure stands at the center of this work—silent, aging, suspended between disappearance and preservation. Long untouched, it shelters forgotten objects beneath a veil of cloth, holding dust, time, and presence in place. The audience enters as quiet intruders, stepping into a space where human life has long receded.
Within this ruin, unseen lives begin to stir. An old woman appears, not as a character but as the soul of the structure itself. Awakened from a deep sleep by the arrival of others, she moves with the weight of accumulated time. Sounds return: a clock begins to tick, the air shifts, and what was once still seems to breathe again.
Through the language of Butoh, the performance drifts away from narrative and toward sensation. Bodies, materials, and space merge; stillness grows dense, and the smallest gesture can fill the void. In this heightened present, fragments of memory surface—personal and collective, fragile and unresolved. Echoing the tremors that reshaped northeastern Japan in 2011, the work touches on loss, endurance, and the quiet persistence of what remains. Here, ruin, body, and memory briefly converge, holding time in suspension.
The Ruin: Maco
The Return: Hikaru Inagawa
Memory: Adina Mohr, Rareș Grozea
Concept, direction, choreography, light & sound design: Hikaru Inagawa
Concept, choreography, costume: Maco
Production: 4RUDE
