'Ballyturk' delivers a surreal yet exciting challenge
When Akira Shirai first read the script for "Ballyturk," he quickly understood why its creator, Irish playwright Enda Walsh, said the work "should bypass the intellect and go straight into your bones." The 60-year-old artistic director at Kanagawa Arts Theatre in Yokohama was mulling over ...
Love is in the air as racy play 'Spring Awakening' comes to theaters
The old never give the young an easy time. "They think they know everything," "They're lazy" — the cross-generational gripes have been around as long as people have. One person who likely had a particularly hard time with his elders was the young German playwright ...
Strindberg's surrealistic 'Dream' heralds a pivotal era for KAAT
He doesn't officially become Kanagawa Arts Theatre's artistic director until April 1, but Akira Shirai wasn't fooling when he declared, "I aim to make KAAT (the official acronym of his Yokohama base) a place where we take a whole fresh look at theater's role ...
'Mercury Fur' exposes a caring kind of depravity
After the premiere of "Mercury Fur" at Theatre Tram in Tokyo's lively Sangenjaya district this month, Issey Takahashi, who stars in that dystopian 2005 play by Philip Ridley, declared: "I think this is a very dark prophecy, but as I was acting my character ...
Shirai triumphs with 'The Tempest'
"I'd like 'The Tempest' I am creating to be on the smallest scale ever, but as it's a very spacious stage at the New National Theatre, Tokyo, it won't have the most compact set. Nonetheless, I will try to present it as stories from ...
