27 January 2013
William Adams, known in Japanese as Anjin, was an English maritime pilot who is believed to be the first Englishman to ever reach Japan. His story is brought to the stage in a stunning new play directed by the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Artistic Director, Gregory Doran, and written by Mike Poulton with Shoichiro Kawai. It
Read on22 January 2013
The BBC Symphony Orchestra is presenting a day of Japanese music on Saturday 2 February at the Barbican in London – Total Immersion: Sounds from Japan. This is part of a long-running series of Total Immersion days. These days usually celebrate the music of a single composer. They are branching out this year and looking at music
Read on6 November 2012
Yellow Earth, lead by new Artistic Director Kumiko Mendl, are touring England (including more London dates) with the five short, hilarious, poignant and punchy plays which make up ‘Dim Sum Nights.’ Although dim sum is usually eaten as brunch or lunch, the ticket price includes some delicious steamed buns and dumplings. The theme of food runs throughout all of these plays and the last play
Read on18 September 2012
Based on music and characters from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, The Wedding Collective’s site-specific event will again explore, through powerful drama and searing music, one of the most iconic stories of the 20th Century – but in a radical piece of guerilla theatre. The show features a professional cast from Japan, Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland and China
Read on10 September 2012
There will be a rash of Benjamin Britten events over the next 18 months, since 2013 marks the centenary of his birth. But last Friday’s performance of Sumidagawa and Curlew River at Christ Church Spitalfields (repeated in Orford, Suffolk on Sunday) promised to be one of the most interesting, bringing together Britten’s “Japanese” opera with
Read on18 June 2012
The Edinburgh International Film Festival will be presenting the very first complete retrospective of the films of director Shinji Somai to be shown outside his native Japan, including a number of films never before screened in the UK. A constant source of inspiration to Japanese filmmakers, Somai’s work is still largely unseen by Western audiences.
Read on18 June 2012
On Saturday I went along to artsdepot in North Finchley to see Little Sunshine, Little Rainfall; a family show by the theatre company A Thousand Cranes, which comprises two performers, Kumiko Mendl and Haruka Kuroda, and director Vicky Ireland MBE.
Read on12 June 2012
Little Sunshine and Little Rainfall invite you to their magic garden. But trouble is afoot for the two gardeners when naughty Storm Fox comes to visit…
Read on1 June 2012
Who are the Japanese of today? Members of the National Student Drama Festival went on a search for a hint to answer this big question, motivated also by the tsunami and nuclear disaster of last year. Can we also approach the essence of man’s nature? Looking into the literature of the period around the Second World War, we found our play Tainai (‘In the Womb’) written in 1949 by Juro Miyoshi
Read on23 May 2012
At least three staff and two trustees of the Foundation went to see the Chiten “Coriolanus”, on at the Globe
Read on