Hot on the heels of Hideki Noda's radical adaptation of "Richard III" being staged by Singaporean director Ong Ken Seng at Shizuoka Performing Arts Center from April 29 to May 1, another intriguing transformation of Shakespeare's Machiavellian king will follow at Theatre Fuusikaden in Tokyo from May 6-31.

Whereas the former is not short of big-name connections, the latter production by Kakushinhan — a company only set up in April 2012 by Ryunosuke Kimura — is somewhat at variance. In fact, though, the young troupe — whose name means "convinced criminals" — have already served their time, with this "Richard III" being their ninth Shakespeare production.

As to why so much of the Bard in so short a time, Kimura said in a conversation we had during rehearsals on a cold March afternoon that he'd been "gripped by Shakespeare's words and his world" since he had the chance to direct "Macbeth" in English as a freshman at the University of Tokyo.