What's in a name? Ask Ichikawa Ebizo, a kabuki scion
When it comes to kabuki, there are few names as recognizable as Ichikawa Ebizo. A member of the illustrious Ichikawa kabuki family, Ebizo has been a mainstay of Japanese traditional ...
Mastering the art of multilingual performance
Tokyo's cozy 60-odd-seat Komaba Agora Theater isn't perhaps where you would expect a cutting-edge multilingual drama experiment to be staged, but that's just where Oriza Hirata has chosen to work his latest magic. There, on a set made to look like a laboratory in the ...
The life of a professional Japanese doppelganger
With his single sequined glove, sparkly jacket and sharp moonwalk dance moves, the man on stage could be no one else. Or could he? "The good thing about being a Michael Jackson impersonator is that I play a global superstar," says Kazushi Yabe, who has ...
'Disturbance' gives a voice to victims of domestic violence
Standing alone, high up on the balcony of the Musicasa theater in Tokyo, the character of Jane — a wife, mother and a victim of domestic abuse — leaves a red analog phone with a coiled cable hanging over the balustrade. "That's a bit of ...
Building bridges to Bangkok through stage
Never at risk of being run of the mill, Chelfitsch — which took its name from a baby's pronunciation of the English word "selfish" and usually stylizes itself with a lowercase "c" — is one of Japan's foremost contemporary theater companies, despite only rarely ...
Ancient Greek ideas get a fresh airing in Japan with 'The Great Tamer'
Greek artist Dimitris Papaioannou burst fully-formed as a choreographer and director onto the international stage with his stunning triumph directing the opening and closing ceremonies of the Athens Olympics in 2004. He has been popular ever since, yet his work consistently retains an avant-garde ...
Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot' is brought into the Reiwa Era
Why are thespians the world over so drawn to "Waiting for Godot," that for many older actors playing one of its leads is as much a matter of professional pride as playing Hamlet is for younger ones? And why, in a poll by the U.K.'s ...
The Royal Ballet brings the best of British ballet to Japan with its production of 'Don Quixote'
For ballet fans across Japan, The Royal Ballet represents the pinnacle in dance, and its upcoming summer tour of Tokyo and Yokohama from June 21 to 30 keeps expectations high. As well as a gala program featuring a wide range of works, famed dancer and ...
The return of the Beatles to Japanese stages with 'Backbeat'
As a concept, "if" may be mere conjecture in real life. In fact, though, if Stuart Sutcliffe hadn't taken his best friend John Lennon's advice back in 1960 and left art school to play bass guitar in his band, the music world would now ...
Dancer Kaiji Moriyama celebrates ninja in his latest work
A creative yet shy child fascinated with origami and crafts, Kaiji Moriyama discovered dance late, at the age of 21 while a university student. He has certainly made up for the lost time, though. Just seven years since first studying the art form, ...
It's Shakespeare's 'Hamlet,' but not as you know it
With praise for his "Hamlet" with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2016 still ringing in his ears — and the plum job of artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington D.C. awaiting him in August — Simon Godwin is an undoubted darling ...
Absurdist comedy 'Every Good Boy Deserves Favour' gets its Japan debut
Tom Stoppard is one of the most influential figures in theater today and one of the most internationally performed postwar dramatists. Both his 1966 Tony-winning absurdist tragicomedy "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," featuring minor characters from Shakespeare's "Hamlet," and his time- and space-spanning masterpiece "Arcadia," ...
