Through the ‘peephole’: This Japanese theater has a new way to watch live shows

A safe way to support the arts.

On par with the revival of drive-in cinemas amid the pandemic, Japanese dance company Moonlight Mobile Theater has now introduced a social distance-friendly way to enjoy live productions.

In what’s being called a “peepshow” performance, theater patrons are requested to sit in little cubicles positioned into a circle surrounding a live stage, where they essentially peep at the live show through tiny mailbox slots. Only 30 people make up the audience of socially-distanced peeping toms.

Moonlight Mobile Theater launched this type of show as early as December last year, as all 12 of their peephole performances have sold out. According to the dance company, minimizing the audience's field of view makes them fully appreciate each detail that the small viewing hole allows.

“We intentionally created small holes and slots resembling mailbox slots,” said Moonlight Mobile Theater artistic director and choreographer Nobuyoshi Asai.

Asai furthered that “if we don’t do it, artists will lose opportunities to dance and act. We want to propose this as a model to bring audiences back to theaters,” as the 30-audience show barely covers the theater’s expenses on running the shows amid a pandemic.