Japanese audiences will soon join those in Holland as the only people in the world with access to a theater whose seating area rotates to face a ring of multiple stages.
So when Kazuki Nakashima's acclaimed samurai drama "Dokurojo no Shichinin" ("Seven Souls in the Skull Castle") opens on March 30 at the brand-new, 1,300-capacity IHI Stage Around Tokyo theater in Koto Ward's Toyosu district, its director, Hidenori Inoue, told The Japan Times with obvious delight, "I'm sure people will feel the sort of excitement they do at an amusement park."
Keiji Matsumura, the theater's manager who also works in the cultural enterprise department of its main backer, TBS Television (Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Inc.), adds with a smile, "Surprisingly, when I went to the 360-degree Theater Hangaar in Holland, I felt a slightly floating feeling in my seat. It was a special experience I've never had anywhere else."