Tag - shakespeare

 
 

SHAKESPEARE

Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 7, 2023
When we were kings: What Shakespeare says about being No. 1
Charles’s crowning is religious pantomime, dramatizing the special relationship between the divine and the head of the royal family — and, by extension, with Britain itself.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 12, 2022
'Totoro' play boosts East Asian visibility on British stage
The Royal Shakespeare Company's adaptation of the Studio Ghibli film is a hit, breaking box-office records. Cast members say they hope the production will help address racism in the arts.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 21, 2021
A fond farewell to two musical inspirations
The music world lost two legendary musicians in December, Robert Michael Nesmith and Robert Warren Dale Shakespeare.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 16, 2021
Rena Matsui tackles Shakespeare in an all-female 'Julius Caesar'
The former idol-pop star takes on the role of Mark Antony in a version of Shakespeare's tragedy that focuses on the tense disputes that arose around Julius Caesar's assassination.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 3, 2021
A take on ‘The Tempest’ that aims to broaden your horizons
“The Tempest: Swimming for Beginners” incorporates the real-life experiences of its cast members with disabilities, as well as the challenges of living through a pandemic.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 5, 2020
Updating 'Romeo and Juliet' in a bid to fight prejudice in Japan
Wishing Chong brings an all-male version of 'Romeo and Juliet,' set in post-war Western Japan, to the stage in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 25, 2020
The art of condensing Shakespeare's oeuvre
Shuntaro Fujita brings 'Tempo 12-nen no Shakespeare' to Tokyo, modernising a story that encompases elements from each of the Bard's 37 plays.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 30, 2019
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 of English theater these days.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Mar 26, 2019
Shakespeare's birthplace of Stratford mirrors a 'scepter'd isle' riven by Brexit discontent
In William Shakespeare's ancient birthplace, discontent over Brexit runs even deeper than three years ago when this "scepter'd isle" shocked the world by voting to leave the European Union.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Sep 16, 2018
To black up or not to black up for 'Othello,' that is the question
As a Tokyo theater offers another Othello in blackface, Baye McNeil argues that breaking out the shoe polish is the laziest yet most problematic option.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 12, 2017
It's more than 400 years old, but 'Richard III' is just as relevant today
Romanian theater director Silviu Purcarete has staged several plays in this country before, but now he's working with an all-Japanese cast for the first time as he prepares to present his brand-new "Richard III" at Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre in Ikebukuro from Oct. 18 to 30, ahead of a three-city tour.
Japan Times
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Apr 7, 2017
Shakespeare writing new script for revitalized Leicester
When Diego Simeone shakes hands with Craig Shakespeare next Wednesday the Atletico Madrid coach will have little idea about his opponent. In fairness, even in England few do. When your club reaches the last eight of the Champions League the manager has usually excelled in the competition and won domestic honors. Leicester City manager Shakespeare is best known for his surname.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 18, 2016
'Macbeth': What's done is done again
Few storytellers can match Shakespeare for his vast range of timeless themes and awesome characters. Imagine what the Bard could have accomplished if he had had a laptop and smartphone.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 13, 2016
World was a stage for acclaimed theater director Yukio Ninagawa
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.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 23, 2016
In search of Japan's own Shakespeare
April 23 marked the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the greatest dramatist of the English speaking world. The anniversary has a particular resonance here: Few countries in the world have embraced Shakespeare with Japan's sustained passion.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 16, 2016
Saluting Shakespeare's scientific legacy
On April 23, the literary world marks the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. It's a good excuse for a lot of fuss: Britain's Royal Mint has produced a new £2 coin, the postal service has prepared a set of commemorative stamps depicting portraits of the Bard and thousands of theaters worldwide are expected to celebrate the anniversary.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 28, 2016
Opera Theater Konnyakuza perfects a union of stage and song
The world of opera has always found inspiration in the works of William Shakespeare, but adapting them for the stage requires flexibility.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 9, 2015
Tackling the Bard's world in one go: Kuranosuke Sasaki teams up with director Andrew Goldberg for a one-man 'Macbeth'
With a piercing yell, Kuranosuke Sasaki bursts out of the rehearsal studio, his hands covered in (fake) blood. Then seeing me, he smiles and says, "Sorry to keep you waiting" — before returning to intensive preparations with American director Andrew Goldberg for his starring role in their one-man "Macbeth," which opens July 12 at Tokyo's Parco Theater.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 20, 2015
Man's portrait identified as that of young Shakespeare
A British magazine has published an image of a figure that it says is the first and only known demonstrably authentic portrait of William Shakespeare made in his lifetime.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 4, 2015
John Caird delivers home truths with 'Twelfth Night'
As an Honorary Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, John Caird may be one of the leading pillars of the English theater establishment, but in a recent interview with The Japan Times, this acclaimed director of plays, musicals and opera declared, "In a sense, some part of me is becoming a little bit Japanese."

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on