The Japan Society Review

With Kyogen masters Juro Zenchiku and Daijiro Zenchiku Music Kyogen Scrooge is an innovative theatrical production that combines Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Japanese traditional comedy play Kyogen, and contemporary music. Review by Alice Baldock

Directed by Bart Price and 2021 Though not for the faint-hearted, Hamletine is a piece that can provoke a huge array of emotional and intellectual responses, drawing on a refreshing mixture of pop culture and canon literature to create [...] Review by Alice Baldock

Directed by Matsui Akira, Richard Emmert, Ashley Thorpe Not only is Emily visually and aurally beautiful, it also makes clear arguments for Noh’s relevance to the contemporary world. Review by Alice Baldock

Music and Libretto by Verity Lane Origami Soundscapes/ The Crane brings music traditions from various parts of the world and combines them with other art forms. Review by Alice Baldock

Directed and performed by Chisato Minamimura Scored in Silence was a mixture of performance, lecture, history lesson, and an experiment with new technology shedding light on the deaf experience of the Hiroshima bombing. Review by Alice Baldock

A collaboration between Damien Jalet and Nawa Kohei In a striking collaboration between the Olivier Award-winning Damien Jalet and Japanese experimental sculptor Kohei Nawa, Vessel blurs the lines between the human form and its environment. Review by Susan Meehan

Danced by Teshigawara Saburo and Sato Rihoko In the almost-darkness, there is a flicker of something beast-like, the sound of scurrying. A whisper of a tail, a tail too long to belong to anything other than something monstrous. Later, we discover it is a [...] Review by Alice Baldock

Co-directed by Maria Oshodi & Kumiko Mendl, written by Glen Neath Flight Paths brings together two pioneering theatre companies, Extant and Yellow Earth Theatre. Amelia and Sarah step onto the set, a flight departure lounge. Have they arrived from Japan? They seem to [...] Review by Susan Meehan

Directed by Indhu Rubasingham, written by Francis Turnly What at first appears to be a conventional family drama, soon develops into something of global significance in Japanese-Northern Irish playwright Francis Turnly’s latest work for the stage. The play begins [...] Review by Poppy Cosyns

By Rouge 28 Theatre A music box plays in an empty room; the only furniture a dresser with television, a mirror and a box of children’s toys on the floor. Suddenly the music is interrupted by a child’s voice calling ‘Mama’. It becomes [...] Review by Heidi Potter