The moon, its memories and its dreams

Maki Morita

月を見る夜  Moongazing is a play that revolves around the moon, and the memories and dreams it conjures. It draws inspiration from the Japanese folktale ‘Ubasute-yama’ and its Noh rendition, where a traveller climbs up a mountain to see the full moon, and there encounters the spirit of an old woman who was abandoned by her son. I’m interested in ideas around death, filial abandonment, loneliness, and spirituality that emerge in this story, and exploring their current relevance from a diasporic perspective. I also want to interrogate this act itself: how do we understand and recontextualise the stories we inherit when we are removed from them culturally and linguistically?
 
In writing a contemporary adaptation, it felt right to link the isolation of the characters with the paradox of the internet, where there is a desire to connect but an anxiety around it too, and an infinitude of self-help resources but a crisis in mental health. Where we can die in real life but live forever as a .jpeg file.

 
If there’s a central mood and feeling informing the work, it’s the strange beauty of Noh. Noh is a form of traditional Japanese theatre known for its slow, meditative pace and surreal qualities. It’s very strict and codified in how it is performed, and the traditions around it are fascinating. While 月を見る夜  Moongazing is by no means a work of Noh theatre, it is very much inspired by its concepts and aesthetics.

LA MAMA PRESENTS Antipodes Theatre Company's 月を見る夜  Moongazing
4-22 February 2026

Find out more & book 月を見る夜  Moongazing

Maki Morita is an emerging writer and theatre-maker on unceded Wurundjeri country. As a playwright, Maki’s debut work Trash Pop Butterflies, Dance Dance Paradise was shown at TheatreWorks in 2023. Her prose and poetry has appeared in Cordite, Island Magazine, The Suburban Review, Mascara Literary Review, Portside Review, and more. She has also exhibited work at Linden New Art. They have been awarded the Ian Potter Cultural Trust Emerging Artist Grant, Wheeler Centre Playwright Hot Desk Fellowship, and George Fairfax Memorial Award. Maki graduated with a Master of Theatre (writing) from the Victorian College of the Arts.

月を見る夜 Moongazing was previously developed as part of Antipodes Theatre Company's 2025 Winter Lab and received a 2025 La Mama Residency. This project is supported by the City of Melbourne Arts Grants, the Hansen Little Foundation and VCA Foundation, and The Ian Potter Cultural Trust.

月を見る夜  Moongazing images by Darren Gill