Known for its nightlife, its fleets of Ferraris and condos with sky-high prices, the affluent central Tokyo district of Roppongi will soon go where even that multinational neighborhood has never gone before — when the launch of a program named Roppongi Kabuki will see that ancient form of traditional theater staged there for the first time ever.
Ancient and traditional, that is, except that "Chikyu Nagegoro — Uchu no Aragoto" — the play by acclaimed scriptwriter Kankuro Kudo that is set to open at Ex Theater Roppongi with renowned movie director Takashi Miike at the helm — is brand new and about as "traditional" as one of its characters being named after Darth Vader might suggest.
The whole thing began one day in January 2014, when the leading kabuki actors Ebizo Ichikawa and Shido Nakamura were chatting in their dressing room.