The Good-Story Murders

Play Reading Series

Monday, March 18, 7:30 pm—Followed by an artist Q&A

Written by playwright and fantasy/sci-fi anime script writer Aya Takaha, The Good-Story Murders takes place in a future Japan where people inexplicably begin to perish during middle age. To memorialize their brief lives, a new profession called “Good Story” writers has cropped up, in which a writer will concoct a dramatic death to be realized by a “flash mob” of performers. A famous Good Story writer, whose client list even includes the prime minister of Japan, designates a homeless person to succeed her. What unfolds next in her plot? With a translation by former SITI-company actor and founding member Leon Ingulsrud, the Miami-born, New York-based director Tai Thompson leads a cast of local actors in this sci-fi suspense play and joins Takaha in a post-show Q&A.

“Amid the pandemic, some creatives got, well, more creative.” –Miami New Times on director Tai Thompson’s Long Distance Affair

Director Tai Thompson on The Good-Story Murders

The 18th installment of Japan Society’s annual Play Reading Series introduces topical plays from up-and-coming playwrights in Japan to artists and audiences in the U.S.   

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Image: The Good-Story Murders © Image is AI-generated; Aya Takaha © Fumika Tsukada.

The Good-Story Murders is supported by The Saison Foundation.

2023-24 Performing Arts Season Support

The season is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Major support is generously provided by Doug and Teresa Peterson; Howard Gilman Foundation; and Hisamitsu America, Inc. Endowment support is provided by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Endowment Fund, The John and Miyoko Davey Endowment Fund, and the Endowment for the Performing Arts, established with a leadership gift from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Additional support is provided by The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Richard and Momona Royce, Nancy and Joe Walker, Dr. and Mrs. Carl F. Taeusch II, Dr. Jeanette C. Takamura, Estate of Alan M. Suhonen, and Friends of the Performing Arts. All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd. is the official airline of the Japan Society Performing Arts Program. Yamaha is the official piano provider of Japan Society.

Japan Society programs are made possible by leadership support from Booth Ferris Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.