Many of the best theatrical stagings on these shores this year tackled issues having to do with the current chaotic state of the world. The focus of the best productions in Japan was how to understand, communicate and cope with others from quite different cultural and ethnic backgrounds; or, as part of the same question, how to find and establish an identity for ourselves. There was a distinctly refreshing approach in the stylish but hard-hitting work of several young talents and a welcome increase in international collaborations. Here is this critic's choice of the 10 best.
1) "Angels in America" by Theatre Project Tokyo
Though it was early in the year that I saw the seven-hour-long "Angels in America," as 2004 draws to a close it is quite easy to award it top spot. Set in mid-1980s Manhattan, this powerful work plunges us deep into a gay world whose happy-go-lucky way of life was thrown into question by the awful new reality of AIDS. Played out on a stage with stunning sets, we see American citizens striving desperately to make sense of this fatal assault on life as they knew it.