The nation's oldest Kabuki theater in the town of Kotohira, Kagawa Prefecture, is working to forge an alliance with Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, according to Kotohira Mayor Masaomi Yamashita.
Yamashita recently said he hopes to finalize the tieup and stage a Shakespeare production by the British theater at the Kanamaru-Za by 2003 -- a year before the 19th-century Kabuki playhouse celebrates the 20th staging of a large-scale Kabuki show held annually each spring.
Yamashita said he got the idea for the alliance in July, when he was invited to London to observe a presentation on the art of Japanese paper-making.
Mark Rylance, artistic director of the Globe Theatre, visited the Kanamaru-Za in October and was receptive to the idea of staging a production there, the mayor said.
"I hope (the planned Shakespeare production) will break new ground," Yamashita said. "The period around 1600, when Shakespeare was in his prime, almost coincides with the period when Izumo no Okuni, the father of Kabuki, was also very active."
Built in 1835, the Kanamaru-Za was designated an important cultural property in 1970. It was remodeled in April 1976.
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre is a reconstruction of the original Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare's plays were originally performed. It was built in 1599 but was torn down in 1644. The current Globe Theatre formally opened in 1997.