Sold-out Galloway previews send Scots-Japanese production Towa Mura to Japan

Tom Pow's Towa Mura, created in Dumfries and Galloway with The Galloway Agreement and Bird Theatre Japan, is about to premiere in Tottori this September.

The team arrive in Tottori.

Towa Mura, an international theatre collaboration developed and made in Dumfries and Galloway, has played to two sold-out preview audiences at CatStrand in New Galloway in June. The production is now in Japan, where it premieres at the Bird Theatre Festival in Tottori. Plans are underway to bring the work back to Scotland for a tour in 2027. Towa Mura has created opportunities to represent the culture of SW Scotland in ways that few of those involved could have imagined. Towa Mura has brought together writer Tom Pow, the musicians of The Galloway Agreement from South West Scotland, and the acclaimed Bird Theatre of Tottori, Japan, who draw on shared experiences of rural life and depopulation to weave poetry, theatre, and music into a story that is both local and universal.

Based on Tom Pow's research extending over ten years, Towa Mura looks at the dilemmas rural communities face and the human cost of depopulation. Its starting point is a real news report in which a Japanese village met to debate its own future: whether to sell itself for landfill or to continue its decline. The play becomes an exploration of social cohesion and of what is lost when a rural community disappears, an argument carried by memory, myth, and imagination as much as by the practical choices an ageing population faces.

Bird Theatre works in Japan's least populated prefecture, a rural context with many parallels to Dumfries and Galloway, the same challenges, and the same reasons people choose to stay, leave, or arrive.

Preview audience feedback included:

"A powerful, thought-provoking, captivating show, with incredible performances. Towa Mura will stay with you long after you leave the theatre. A must-see, and a privilege to see it here in the Glenkens, where it was created."

"This show must tour Scotland. The themes are so close to our history of the clearances and rural depopulation over the centuries, we can all connect with it."

Towa Mura (c) Kim Ayres

"Universal theme of human belonging, captured so delicately and beautifully. The music was stunning, and a real privilege to see such masterful acting and direction. A story to traverse countries, cultures, and bind communities."

Peter Renwick of CatStrand said:

"To have this work built here in the Glenkens is something I will not forget. What struck me most was how fast people recognised themselves in it. Two rural communities on opposite sides of the world found they were having the same conversation, and the audience here felt like they were seeing their own stories play out."

Towa Mura was written by Tom Pow, directed by Makoto Nakashima, and has an original score written by The Galloway Agreement. It is produced by Ruth Morris, Peter Renwick (CatStrand), Bird Theatre, and The Japan Foundation, with support from Creative Scotland, the British Council, and Sasakawa and Daiwa Foundations.

Bird Theatre and CatStrand are now twinned theatres, with a shared mission based on the belief in the vitality of culture to rural communities, and a shared commitment to future partnership. The partnership with Bird Theatre will continue beyond the premiere, and CatStrand, producer Ruth Morris, and Bird Theatre are now working towards a Scottish tour in 2027 and exploring international opportunities.

Peter Renwick, CatStrand