As the Beckham typhoon swept through Japan last week, so Japan's theater world was taken by storm by its biggest event of the year to date.
In part, too, this is another Anglo phenomenon, being Shakespeare's "Hamlet" directed by Englishman Jonathan Kent, the former co-artistic director of the Almeida Theater in London. But what really set theatergoers' pulses racing was the fact that he was staging this most famous of the Bard's tragedies with kyogen superstar, 37-year-old Mansai Nomura, in the title role at Setagaya Public Theater, where he is the newly appointed artistic director.
Theatergoers here were agape at the prospect of Kent's all-male "Hamlet," with not only Nomura in its lineup, but also two famed female impersonators -- Eisuke Sasai from the contemporary drama world, and oyama Shinobu Nakamura from the rarefied realm of kabuki. And as if that wasn't enough, these players were teamed with the renowned Shakespearean actors Kotaro Yoshida (Claudius), Masane Tsukayama (Ghost, Player King, Gravedigger) and Haruhiko Jo (Polonius) -- all backed by an English technical crew led by set and costume designer Paul Brown, 2001 winner of both the prestigious Critics Circle and Evening Standard awards.