Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30 minute program from the Voice of America.

I'm Ashley Thompson.

And I'm Mario Ritter Jr.

This program is designed for English learners,

so we speak a little slower and we use words and phrases especially written for people learning English.

On today's program, you will hear stories from Jill Robbins and Mario Ritter Jr.

Later, John Russell and I bring you today's health and lifestyle report. We close the show with the

lesson of the day. But first, here is Jill Robbins.

A playhouse in London, Britain, and a theatre from Osaka, Japan, are working together to prove cultural differences between the two countries are only on the surface.

London's Charing Cross Theater and Osaka's Umeida Arts Theater

first worked together on a performance in 2019.

After a break caused by the pandemic, they are jointly staging two plays in London this month.

The plays are rooted in Japanese culture and deal with secretive relationships,

but the concerns are universal.

Actor Susan Momoko Hingley spoke of Japan's export of culture,

including films and television series.

She told the Reuters News Agency, it's really about

getting great stories from all sorts of different cultures to Britain and to the

West. She stars in one small step, written by Tachio Kato.

It tells the story of a couple working for a company that is colonizing the moon.

The plot becomes more complex with the news the woman is pregnant.

It raises concerns audiences almost anywhere can relate to about motherhood, career, and inequality between men and women.

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