People always comment on Shakespeare's incredible productivity, but director Yukio Ninagawa surely deserves to be right up there with him -- at least in terms of hard work.
In the last three months alone, I have seen two of his productions: in May, his uneven staging of Tennessee Williams' 1947 drama "A Streetcar Named Desire"; and in June, his masterly version of Sophocles' tragedy "Oedipus Rex." Meanwhile, he recently announced his next filmmaking venture -- a horror movie, "Aoi Hono (Blue Flame)," scheduled for release in spring next year.
Ninagawa's latest project is a reworking of one of the most successful productions in his repertoire, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (by accident or design, not "A Midsummer's-Night Dream," as the original is titled).