Pinko Izumi & Ryuta Sato Co-star! "Seibugeki! Just as I Started End-of-Life Planning, My 55-Year-Old Son Returned" Premieres! Izumi Guarantees, "You Won't Be Disappointed!"

"Seibugeki! Just as I Started End-of-Life Planning, My 55-Year-Old Son Returned," co-starring Pinko Izumi and Ryuta Sato, premiered on Saturday, April 25, 2026, at Theater 1010 in Tokyo. Based on the novel "My Son Who Said 'Die, You Old Hag!' Has Returned at 55" by Yuki Hosaka (Kodansha), the play features Izumi, Sato, Mari Hoshino, and Michiko Ameku. Starting with Theater 1010, the production will be staged nationwide, including in Osaka, Aichi, and Hiroshima.

"Seibugeki" (Voice Dance Drama) is a coined term reflecting the desire to "express like dancing by making full use of the voice." While the cast members hold scripts in their hands like in a stage reading, the sets and movements are more akin to a traditional stage production. This style, which takes the best of both a stage reading that stimulates the imagination and a stage play where one can enjoy the solid acting of the four veteran cast members led by Izumi, freshly depicts a story of the regeneration of family bonds.

The dress rehearsal began with narration by Pinko Izumi, playing the role of Harue Kobayashi. With the house lights still on, Izumi walked smoothly to the center of the stage. Through a few minutes of a one-person show featuring an intro sprinkled with her signature "Pinko style" and a self-introduction as Harue, she lightly invites the audience into the work.

Harue, who turned 75 on this day, has a son, Tatsuhiko, who left home hurling verbal abuse when he was 18 and has been estranged ever since. Just as Harue decides to start her "shukatsu" (end-of-life planning), Tatsuhiko abruptly returns to his parents' home, declaring that he will divorce his wife, Masayo... Harue enjoys chatting with her childhood best friend Machiko Nakano (Ma-chan), worries about her son, and goes to meet Masayo. Triggered by her son's return, Harue begins to take the time to face her life so far and her son.

Honest feelings that cannot be expressed straightforwardly because they are parent and child, pride that gets in the way because they are husband and wife, and human relationships that become tangled by leaving things unsaid. This work is sprinkled with seeds of empathy that anyone has probably felt in their daily lives. There are surely scenes where one would want to say "I get it" from the perspective of a parent, child, husband, wife, or friend.

It is the power of these four cast members that sublimated emotions familiar to everyone into a compelling drama.

Izumi plays Harue, who raised her son single-handedly. While making the audience feel her quiet gaze toward the remainder of her life, she accepts Sato's performance as her son, Tatsuhiko, entirely with deep affection. Izumi's acting, which returns in a different tone each time depending on the temperature of what Sato throws at her, brought to life the existence of a living mother on stage. A mother's enduring affection for her son, no matter how old he gets, is conveyed almost painfully.

The one Izumi guarantees by saying "My son is great" is Sato. Tatsuhiko, who suddenly returns to his parents' home, is a stubborn character who cannot express his words honestly to either his mother or his wife. There are few scenes where he expresses his feelings in words, but Sato eloquently speaks to Tatsuhiko's character through parts other than his dialogue. His deeply accommodating performance blends with Izumi's performance to add depth to the work.

The character of the quiet Tatsuhiko also emerges through the performance of Mari Hoshino, who plays his wife, Masayo. While conveying the independence and strength of a career woman who continues to advance in a major company, it was impressive how Hoshino's own softness directly connected to Masayo's kindness. She depicted a bond for strangers to become family, different from the blood-tied relationship between Harue and Tatsuhiko.

Precisely because the clumsily crossing parent-child and marital relationships are at the center of the story, the unreserved chat between female friends Harue and her best friend Machiko (Ma-chan) is comforting. Michiko Ameku charmingly expresses Ma-chan as a very powerful woman whose emotions are clear. She embodied the ideal of having such a best friend by one's side when one grows older.

At the root of this story, where laughter and tears intersect, are the words that could not be said precisely because they are family. The sight of Harue and Tatsuhiko facing the true feelings they had tried not to see will surely gently shake the memories deep in someone's heart.

At the press briefing held prior to the premiere, the four cast members took the stage: Pinko Izumi as Harue, Ryuta Sato as Tatsuhiko, Mari Hoshino as Masayo, and Michiko Ameku as Machiko (Ma-chan). The four, having just finished the dress rehearsal, were already showing perfectly synchronized liveliness at the press conference, and the warm atmosphere of the company could be felt.

When asked about her state of mind on the opening day today, Izumi drew laughs by answering with an energetic phrase, "Normal state of mind!" Regarding her response to the work, she revealed that she decided to appear immediately, saying, "I fell in love just seeing the title of the original work," and gave her seal of approval with her typical thrilling way of speaking, "This teamwork and the story are incredibly good. You won't be disappointed."

Looking back on the rehearsal period, Sato said, "Pinko-san kept telling us stories, including during breaks, and truly became the mood maker on set." Regarding Izumi's acting, he...