As directed by Barry Kyle and performed by the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre Company from London, this "King Lear" is no cobwebbed historical fable. In this, the company's second visit to Japan (the last time was in 1998 with "As you like It"), they bring not only a classic drama but also the democratic spirit of Renaissance theater, where the audience participates, not just watches passively.

Julian Glover as Lear, King of Britain, and Tonia Chauvet as Cordelia, his youngest daughter, in the Globe Theatre's "King Lear"

And the audience is involved from the first in this gripping drama of family feuds, misunderstandings and generation-gap clashes, as relevant for our contemporary world as it would have been at the original Globe in 1606.