Stage Oct 14, 2020
‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ conjures dark fantasies
by Nobuko Tanaka
Director Silviu Purcarete reveals the murky and bizarre aspects of humanity in a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s comedy about love and magic.
Stage Oct 3, 2019
'Q: A Night At The Kabuki': Giving a classic love story the Queen treatment
by Nobuko Tanaka
Hideki Noda's new play updates the story of 'Romeo and Juliet' and sets it to a soundtrack of songs from Queen's classic 1975 album, 'A Night at the Opera'
Culture Oct 20, 2018
Japonismes 2018 seeks to break down cultural stereotypes
by John L. Tran
A stupendous full autumn moon, bright orange and fat, flashes intermittently between the nondescript high-rise flats and offices on the drive to Charles de Gaulle Airport. It's an apt and beautiful reminder of one of the events that we, a group of Tokyo-based editors ...
Stage Nov 7, 2017
A 2010 play by Hideki Noda gets wry extra twists of English humor in 'One Green Bottle'
by Nobuko Tanaka
"One Green Bottle" is a new-ish work co-written by the renowned Japanese dramatist Hideki Noda and Will Sharpe, who shot to fame in Britain in 2016 with the comedy series "Flowers," which he wrote, directed and also starred in. The title of the play — ...
Stage May 13, 2016
World was a stage for acclaimed theater director Yukio Ninagawa
by Nobuko Tanaka
Acclaimed stage director Yukio Ninagawa was a titan of global theater but his hand felt astonishingly fragile when I shook it in delight in 2012 after the world premiere of "Trojan Women," which brought together a remarkable ensemble of Japanese, Arab-Israeli and Jewish-Israeli actors. Ninagawa, ...
Stage Apr 26, 2016
Young dramatists mark the Bard's anniversary in style
by Mika Eglinton
Hot on the heels of Hideki Noda's radical adaptation of "Richard III" being staged by Singaporean director Ong Ken Seng at Shizuoka Performing Arts Center from April 29 to May 1, another intriguing transformation of Shakespeare's Machiavellian king will follow at Theatre Fuusikaden in ...
Stage Mar 31, 2015
Konan W.U. students set to mark 50 years of Shakespeare in English
by Andrew Eglinton
In 1964, the late Polish theater scholar Jan Kott wrote "Shakespeare, Our Contemporary," an influential book that questioned the processes of producing Shakespeare in the here and now and whether the Bard's texts should serve as clues for an archeological dig to recover something ...
Stage Mar 25, 2015
Noda's 'Egg' scrambles understanding
by Bronwyn Mahoney
After his acclaimed French debut last year with "The Bee," news of Hideki Noda's return to the Theatre National de Chaillot in central Paris with his pop-war-and-Olympian extravaganza "Egg" created quite a buzz of anticipation. Premiered in 2012 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre where Noda ...
Stage Dec 24, 2014
2014: New horizons opened up in Japan's theater world
by Nobuko Tanaka
Looking back over the past 12 months in Japan's theater world, it's clear that one encouraging trend is a lessening of the capital's dominance. Contemporary drama in this country has long been centralized on Tokyo, where major theaters plan their programs far in advance, booking ...
Stage Feb 12, 2014
Double-take for a new one-woman 'Tinkerbell'
by Nobuko Tanaka
Life is hard for Marcello Magni. Not only is he directing a production separately starring famed actress Tomoko Mariya and upcoming talent Kae Okumura, but the work, in Japanese, is also his brand-new version of an early play by his great friend — and ...
Stage Jan 29, 2014
by Mika Eglinton
By popular demand, Shizuoka Performing Arts Center is set to stage a revival of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," its sell-out 2011 production adapted by contemporary theater paragon Hideki Noda and directed by its own artistic diector, Satoshi Miyagi. Back in April 2011, counter to the ...
Stage Dec 4, 2013
One year on from arts world 'disaster'
by Natsume Date
It's Oct. 27 and the setting sun fades to darkness. A long line of people begins to form around Tsukiji Honganji Temple next to the world-famous fish market in central Tokyo. The scene recalls what happened there last year on Dec. 27, the funeral ...