Japanese playwright Toshiki Okada is not terribly optimistic about
his country. He named his theater company “chelfitsch,” a baby-talk
breakdown of the English world “selfish,” which, he says, evokes
“the social and cultural characteristics of today’s Japan.” His play
Five Days is about what young couples were doing when the U.S.
attacked Iraq in 2003—one pair stays in a love hotel for five
days, leaving only to eat. As they speak, Okada’s actors perform a
kind of choreographed Saint Vitus’ dance, a corporeal static that looks as glitchy as the lights in Shibuya. (On the Boards, 100
W Roy St, 217-9888. 8 pm, $12–$24. Runs Jan 28–Feb 1.)

Brend an Kiley has worked as a child actor in New Orleans, as a member of the junior press corps at the 1988 Republican National Convention, and, for one happy April, as a bootlegger’s assistant in Nicaragua....