Cultures collide on the small square stage of Mansai Nomura's pared-down "Macbeth," in which the actor/director draws on the restrained aesthetics of noh and the agility and wit of kyōgen traditional comic theater as he transplants his version of Shakespeare's blood-soaked Scottish play to medieval Japan.
A household name here, known as a leading kyōgen actor and for his work in contemporary theater, film and television, Nomura has since 2002 also been the artistic director of Setagaya Public Theatre (SePT) in Sangenjaya, Tokyo.
Now aged 48, he is no stranger to Shakespeare. In his late teens he appeared as a blind, flute-playing hermit boy in Akira Kurosawa's 1985 film "Ran," his reworking of "King Lear." He has also played Hamlet twice, once in his early 20s and again in an acclaimed 2003 production at SePT by the renowned English director Jonathan Kent. In 2001 he toured internationally with his kyōgen adaptation of "The Comedy of Errors," and in 2007 he directed a kyōgen version of "Richard III" titled "Kuni-nusubito."