O, Canada! You bring us kogals and Ichiro?

Something is shakin' up there in Vancouver, B.C., theater circles. And we're about to find out more about it.

The Vancouver experimental troupe Theatre Replacement is on its way, making its cross-the-border debut Thursday at On the Boards.

And their debut show here is bound to raise eyebrows: "Sexual Practices of the Japanese."

No, it's not a dramatized sex manual. It is, according to co-creators Maiko Bae Yamamoto and James Long, three interwoven stories that playfully examine the preconceptions and realities of Japanese sexuality — from subway groping and erotic comic books, to Elvis impersonators, "love hotels" and fantasies about Seattle Mariners icon Ichiro Suzuki.

Melders of song, movement, humor and fractured storytelling, Theatre Replacement is part of a hopping Vancouver avant-garde scene that, observes On the Boards artistic director Lane Czaplinski, is "made up of younger ensembles in a period of experimentation."

Theater preview


"Sexual Practices of the Japanese," 8 p.m. Thursday-Feb. 24, On the Boards, 100 W. Roy St., Seattle; $18 (206-217-9888 or www.ontheboards.org).

"They are trying," he continues, "the very difficult task of making work that's both socially relevant and very contemporary."

Theatre Replacement is actually one of four Vancouver acts Czaplinski has booked for OTB's Northwest Artist series this season. (March 29-31, dance pieces by B.C. choreographers Crystal Pite and Day Helesic share a bill, and May 16-20 the neworldtheatre performs "The Adventures of Ali and Ali and the Axes of Evil," its satirical look at the "war on terror" and "neo-colonialism.")

To Long and Yamamoto, who co-founded Theatre Replacement in 2003, these artists are part of a close-knit community with similar aesthetic goals.

"Some of us graduated from Simon Fraser School for the Contemporary Arts, one of the more alternative places to study very physical and ensemble-based performance," explains Long.

B.C. critics have been impressed, and at times bewildered, by this new breed. One paper branded "Sexual Practices of the Japanese" a strange "eccentric assembly of ideas."

Long notes that audiences are growing for such shows, and other topical, free-form works at such venues as the Vancouver East Cultural Centre (a former funeral home), Performance Works and at the annual PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.

"Last November, we also had a great event called 'Hive' that involved 30 different groups performing new material over three nights," Long adds. "There was so much energy and risk and daring, and a lot of people turned out for it."

Daring could apply to "Sexual Practices of the Japanese," which its creators say is more sexually suggestive than graphic.

"The piece follows three lonely office workers in Japan through a day in their lives, and it addresses some very subversive cultural stereotypes in that society," says Yamamoto, a Japanese-Canadian who has spent time in Japan.

The show's main characters are kogals, the term for miniskirted, adolescent girls in school uniforms who turn up often in Japanese porn.

"These girls are objectified sexually," explains Yamamoto, who also appears in the show. "We play with the idea of them being objects, but what also comes out is a sense of their empowerment."

Yes, the show is recommended for patrons 16 and older, but Yamamoto cautions against reading too much into that.

"Don't be fooled by the title. We're taking a kind of anthropological look at Japanese society, not just its sexual aspects but other things too, like gender hierarchy in the office world."

Czaplinski hopes bringing Vancouver troupes here "creates a reciprocal effect, so more artists travel up and down this really interesting cultural corridor between Vancouver, Seattle and Portland, and cross-pollinate."

Long does worry about how one aspect of "Sexual Practices of the Japanese" will go over in Seattle — not the erotica, but the bits about baseball.

"I want to get our facts straight about that," he says. "If Seattle people brought a show about hockey up to Vancouver, we'd be watching very carefully to see if they got it right."

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com