Examples of Post-Shingeki Theater: Suzuki Tadashi, Ninagawa Yukio
List of Shakespeare productions in Asia on MIT Global Shakespeares site
I. Suzuki Tadashi (1939-) Wikipedia
A. History of SCOT Toga Theater; SCOT website
a. bought bunch of old farmhouses in Toga in 1976
b. Toga festival founded in 1982
c. Isozaki Arata designed buildings
B. Shiraishi Kayoko (1941-)
1. Gekiteki naru Mono o Megutte I (1969) and II (1970): variously translated as On the Dramatic Passions, On the Dramatic, In Search of the Dramatic
2. II (1970): Shiraishi performed solo in ten scenes taken from plays by Tsuruya Nanboku (early 19th c. Kabuki playwright); a Shinpa play; a play by Izumi Kyoka etc.; the scenes focused on a woman who had been grievously wronged
3. Compared to Okuni, legendary founder of Kabuki
C. Composition method (honkadori, sekai) as described in article on "The Theatrical Fusion of Suzuki Tadashii'
a. The Trojan Women, Macbeth, King Lear, Cherry Orchard, The Bachae
D. Training method (“Grammar of the Feet”)
Theater in Japan: Yesterday and Today @13:30 opens with training method of stamping (see also here); @16:30 clip of Ibsen's The Cherry Orchard with Shiraishi Kayoko, including an enka song
Videos: One Step on a Journey is an account of an Australian Theater company's performance of Macbeth in Adelaide and Tokyo
Watch first ten minutes until the soliliquy by Macbeth trying to decide whether to kill his King (Duncan) or not:
If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly: if the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'd jump the life to come. But in these cases
We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
To our own lips.
Basic meaning: If only killing Duncan had no consequences, and his death ("surcease") simply brought me the success I crave, I would do it in a heartbeat. But, first, there's the possiblity of being damned for it after death ("the life to come") and second, here on earth, if you act violently, you may start a cycle of violence that will come back to haunt you ( "bloody instructions" once taught "return to plague the inventor" and you will end up having to drink from the "poisoned chalice" that you have given someone else to drink). [Basically this is exactly what happens to Macbeth -- also Hamlet]
Compare with Ian McKellen (1979 production) @27:40 (you know him as Dumbledore in Harry Potter films and Magneto in X-men films)
E. Discussion: other elements of traditional theater?
a. staging/lighting/pacing practices (shomen staging. jo-ha-kyu, etc.)
b. emphasis on techniques focused on disciplining the body
b. centrality of actor over script, powerful voice over realism
More productions
The Bacchae (by Euripedes) from Piercing the Mask @22 climactic death scene done Butoh style with Ashikawa Yoko: Pentheus has been torn limb from limb by women (including his mother) who have been driven mad by the god Dionysius
The Trojan Women with Shiraishi Kayoko as Cassandra
Trojan Women (Las Troyanas) full production
Suzuki's Creative Trajectory in Toga Documentary about SCOT theater productions; The Tale of King Lear @24
Waiting for Orestes: Electra opening
II. Ninagawa Yukio (1935-2016) born in Kawaguchi, Saitama.
Like Suzuki, well known in the west for his Japanese language productions of Shakespeare plays and Greek tragedies.
He directed Hamlet differently six times (according to Wikipedia).
A. Visual style
1. Usually creates some kind of frame (actors' dressing rooms, Buddhist temple)
a. In Hamlet one version uses hinadan (Doll Festival display)
1). Hina matsuri (doll day festival)
Hamlet images
(see description in Brokering of the Doll Festival version of Hamlet , pp. 378-388)
b. shomen staging in final scene
(video: Ninagawa's Hamlet; different, less "traditional" version at the Barbican 2015)
B. Acting styles
Ninagawa's Macbeth: Ninagawa's most famous production, first performed outside of Japan in 1980 in London. Very strongly influenced by Kurosawa Akira's Throne of Blood samurai version of Macbeth, but more Kabuki -influence than Noh. Stage is stepped, like Hamlet, but less steeply (creates space of Buddhist temple, interiors and exteriors of various castles and the woods) with huge sliding screens.
Trailer for 2017 Singapore performance of Macbeth (clips start @ 0:1:25) clips include opening with two old women praying at a Buddhist Temple (they subsequently move to thrust stages on the right and left and watch the entire play from there); the cherry trees that = Birnam Wood)
(Video: Amateur footage of the last 10 minutes Ninagawa's Macbeth (1980, Lincoln Center);
Review of a 2017 performance of Macbeth in Singapore, including a short clip of the Weird Sisters
Takarazuka Hamlet
Nomura Mansai's Hamlet
