Keralino Sandorovich / KERA (ケラリーノ・サンドロヴィッチ): The Surreal Maestro of Nylon 100°C

Introduction

Under the flamboyant stage name Keralino Sandorovich -- a name that itself signals a playful disregard for convention -- the artist known as KERA (ケラリーノ・サンドロヴィッチ) has established himself as one of the most versatile, prolific, and consistently inventive figures in contemporary Japanese theater. Playwright, director, musician, and all-around creative provocateur, KERA defies easy categorization, moving freely between comedy and tragedy, realism and surrealism, the intimate and the spectacular.

As the founder and guiding spirit of Nylon 100°C (ナイロン100℃), one of Japan's most beloved and critically respected theater companies, KERA has created a body of work that is simultaneously wildly entertaining and intellectually substantial. His receipt of the 43rd Kishida Kunio Drama Award in 1999 for Frozen Beach (フローズン・ビーチ) confirmed what his audiences and peers already knew: that KERA was not merely a gifted entertainer but a major dramatic artist.

Early Life and Career

KERA was born in 1963 as Kazumi Kobayashi (小林一三, though this is his birth name not widely used). His adoption of the Russian-sounding pseudonym "Keralino Sandorovich" -- often shortened to KERA -- was characteristic of his irreverent, boundary-crossing sensibility. The name itself is a kind of performance, a playful fiction that sets the stage for the creative work to follow.

Before establishing himself primarily as a theater maker, KERA was active as a musician, performing as a member of the band Yugure-dan (有頂天, which can be translated as "Ecstasy" or "At the Peak"). This musical background has remained an important element of his creative identity, and music continues to play a significant role in many of his theatrical productions.

KERA founded Nylon 100°C in 1993, and the company quickly became one of the most exciting forces in Tokyo's small theater scene. The company's name, with its suggestion of synthetic materials pushed to their melting point, aptly captures the quality of KERA's theatrical work: artificial in the best sense (self-consciously theatrical, stylized, constructed) and operating at a high temperature of creative energy.

From the beginning, Nylon 100°C productions were distinguished by their combination of sophisticated wit, elaborate stagecraft, strong ensemble performances, and a distinctive visual style that drew on everything from classic cinema to avant-garde art. KERA's theatrical vocabulary was vast, and he deployed it with a confidence and inventiveness that attracted both devoted audiences and critical admiration.

The Kishida Prize-Winning Work

Frozen Beach (フローズン・ビーチ), 1999

Frozen Beach represents KERA at the height of his powers, a play that showcases his ability to create a work that is simultaneously hilarious, unsettling, and emotionally resonant. The title's oxymoronic quality -- a beach that is frozen, a place of leisure and warmth transformed into something cold and inhospitable -- signals the play's interest in the gap between expectation and reality, between the surfaces of things and what lies beneath.

The play unfolds through a series of scenes that blend realism with elements of the surreal and the absurd. Characters find themselves in situations that begin in recognizable normality but gradually shift toward the strange and disorienting. KERA's gift for dialogue -- quick, witty, rhythmically precise -- drives the action forward while also creating an atmosphere of underlying unease.

What distinguishes Frozen Beach from mere comedy or mere surrealism is the emotional depth that emerges as the play progresses. Beneath the surface of wit and invention, there are real human concerns: loneliness, the desire for connection, the difficulty of understanding others and being understood. KERA's comedy, at its best, is never merely funny; it is a way of approaching truths that might be too painful to address directly.

The Kishida Prize jury recognized in Frozen Beach a work that expanded the possibilities of Japanese dramatic writing, demonstrating that intellectual playfulness and emotional sincerity were not mutually exclusive but could, in the right hands, enhance and deepen each other.

Theatrical Style and Philosophy

KERA's theatrical style is remarkably diverse, but several consistent elements can be identified:

Comedy as a serious art: KERA is, first and foremost, a comedic writer, but his comedy is never trivial. He works in the tradition of comic dramatists like Oscar Wilde, Joe Orton, and Tom Stoppard, for whom wit is not an ornament but a way of seeing the world. His humor ranges from sophisticated wordplay to broad physical comedy, but it always serves a larger purpose.

Surrealism and the uncanny: Many of KERA's plays incorporate elements of the surreal, the fantastical, or the uncanny. Characters may find themselves in impossible situations, time may behave strangely, and the boundary between reality and dream may become fluid. These surrealist elements are not arbitrary; they serve to defamiliarize ordinary experience and to reveal the strangeness that lurks beneath the surface of everyday life.

Social commentary: While KERA is not a political playwright in the conventional sense, his work frequently engages with social and cultural issues. His plays satirize conformity, question social norms, and explore the pressures that contemporary Japanese society places on individuals. This social commentary is woven into the fabric of his comedies rather than imposed from outside.

Visual imagination: KERA's productions are often visually stunning, with elaborate sets, striking costumes, and inventive use of lighting and sound. His background in music and his broad cultural interests contribute to a theatrical aesthetic that is richly sensory and imaginatively detailed.

Ensemble excellence: Nylon 100°C is known for the quality of its ensemble performances, and KERA's plays are written to showcase the talents of a company of actors working together in a spirit of creative collaboration. His scripts demand versatility, timing, and the ability to shift between comic and serious registers with precision.

Genre fluidity: KERA moves freely between genres and styles, sometimes within a single play. A production might begin as a drawing-room comedy and evolve into a psychological thriller, or a farce might reveal itself as a meditation on mortality. This genre fluidity keeps audiences off balance and prevents his work from becoming predictable.

Major Works

KERA's prolific output includes:

• Frozen Beach (フローズン・ビーチ, 1999) -- Kishida Prize winner
• Noise / Music (ノイズ/ミュージック) -- A play exploring the boundaries between order and chaos
• The Dressing Room (楽屋) -- A backstage comedy
• Phantom Pain (消失) -- A darker exploration of loss and absence
• Log House in the Desert (砂漠のログハウス) -- A surreal comedy
• Crime and Punishment -- His adaptation of Dostoevsky
• Numerous other Nylon 100°C productions and external directorial works, including major commercial productions

KERA has also directed productions for other companies and for commercial theater, demonstrating his ability to work at various scales while maintaining his distinctive artistic vision.

Legacy and Influence

KERA's legacy in Japanese theater is multifaceted. He has demonstrated that comedy can be a vehicle for serious artistic ambition, helping to elevate the status of comic playwriting in a theater culture that has sometimes privileged the solemn and the avant-garde. His success has encouraged younger playwrights to pursue comedic writing without feeling that they are choosing a lesser form.

His versatility -- as playwright, director, musician, and public figure -- has made him a model for a new kind of theater artist, one who works across media and genres rather than confining themselves to a single form. In an era when the boundaries between different forms of cultural production are increasingly fluid, KERA's multi-disciplinary approach seems prescient.

Nylon 100°C has also served as a training ground for actors and other theater practitioners who have gone on to significant careers in Japanese theater, film, and television. The company's culture of creative excellence and collaborative invention has shaped the working practices of a generation of performers.

KERA's influence extends beyond theater into the broader landscape of Japanese comedy and entertainment. His sophisticated, culturally literate approach to comedy has helped set a standard that informs work across multiple media.

How to Experience Their Work

Nylon 100°C continues to produce new work regularly, and their Tokyo productions are essential viewing for anyone interested in contemporary Japanese theater. KERA also directs for other companies and for commercial theater, so his work can be encountered in a variety of contexts.

Some of KERA's plays are available in published form in Japanese, and selections of his work have been translated or adapted for international audiences.

If you are interested in discovering theatrical scripts that share KERA's blend of comedy, surrealism, and social insight, we invite you to search our library at 戯曲図書館の検索ページ. You may find plays that offer a similar combination of wit, imagination, and emotional depth.