Between Tokyo and Frankfurt: Akira Takayama’s ‘theatre 2.0’, migratory encounters and urban solidarity in the contemporary city

This article theorises how Akira Takayama with his theatre company Port B facilitates large-scale multi-sited performance works in cities across the globe, which expand the physical architecture of the theatre and utilise digital communications technology. To probe the relation between theatre and the contemporary city, the article interrogates what Takayama calls ‘theatre 2.0’. Drawing on interpersonal exchange with the artist and the notion of ‘quiet politics’ (Askin 2015), the article argues that Takayama's theatre 2.0 forges urban interstices for quiet and tender migratory encounters within an otherwise violent geopolitical sphere of asylum, forced displacement and oppressive border regimes.