'Sumo' at La Jolla Playhouse
Tuesday: 7:30 PM - 9 PM
Wednesday: 7:30 PM - 9 PM
Thursday: 8 PM - 9:30 PM
Friday: 8 PM - 9:30 PM
Saturday: 2 PM - 3:30 PM
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True victory is victory over oneself
Entrenched in an elite sumo training facility in Tokyo, six men practice, eat, love, play and ultimately fight.
Akio arrives as an angry, ambitious 18 year old with a lot to learn. Expecting validation, dominance and fame, and desperate to move up the ranks, he slams headlong into his fellow wrestlers, especially Mitsuo, the highest ranked fighter. With sponsorship money at stake, their bodies on the line, and their futures at risk, the wrestlers struggle to carve themselves – and one another – into the men they dream of being.
Lisa Sanaye Dring has painted a vivid world with poetic precision, mixing ancient, divine ritual with the guttural ferocity of competition. "SUMO" was a hit as part of our DNA New Work Series in 2021. Directed by Ralph B. Peña (artistic director of Ma-Yi Theater) and featuring live taiko drumming, we are thrilled to bring this tenderly drawn and unique work to life for San Diego audiences.
“Welcome to the dohyō. Where the national heroes of Japan are made. These men are not gods, they are sumo. But sumo wrestlers were once gods.”
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La Jolla Playhouse
The La Jolla Playhouse, a Tony Award-winning professional nonprofit theatre, is located in the San Diego coastal suburb of La Jolla, California. Its mission is to advance theatre as an art form and as a vital social, moral and political platform by providing unfettered creative opportunities for the leading artists of today and tomorrow. With a youthful spirit and eclectic, artist-driven approach, the Playhouse cultivates a local and national following with an insatiable appetite for audacious and diverse work. The Playhouse has received more than 300 awards for theatre excellence, including the 1993 Tony Award as America's Outstanding Regional Theatre. La Jolla Playhouse is nationally acclaimed for its innovative productions of classics, new plays and musicals. Scores of Playhouse productions have moved to Broadway, garnering a total of 29 Tony Awards. Led by Artistic Director Christopher Ashley and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg, the Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer. The Playhouse also presents a wide range of education programs that enrich the community and serve the maximum number of children, students and adults. Box Office Hours When performances are taking place: Monday: noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday - Wednesday: noon to 7:30 p.m. Thursday - Saturday: noon to 8 p.m. Sunday: noon to 7 p.m. When the theatre is not in performance: Monday - Saturday: noon to 6 p.m. The main Box Office is located in the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for La Jolla Playhouse. For performances, a box office is open at the theatre in which the performance is taking place and the main Box Office remains open to accommodate advance sales and subscriber exchanges.
