しあわせ

As part of the Bite09 season at the Barbican in London there are two plays that will be performed in Japanese (with English surtitles). Both by Internationally renowned companies.

The first is Shun-kun 春琴 by Complicite.
The lead in Japan was Japanese actress Eri Fukatsu. I presume she reprises the role here.

The other is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night by NinaGawa, Sochiku Grand Kabuki.
I have seen a previous adaptation of Coriolanus by this company and they are impressive stagings. The Japanese feels very fast, possibly because they are trying to fit in a longer text. I found the women easier to understand but I was able to follow the speeches I had learnt at school (in English). The ending was suitably manga-esgue with Coriolanus spraying red arterial blood all over the white costumes in the best tradition of a samurai duel.
This play is Twelfth Night done in the manner of Kabuki. My wife tells me the actor is a very famous Kabuki actor. Judging by the photographs the play gets the full Kabuki treatment. Niwagawa company is very famous and at the time of writing this there aren’t many seats left.

Tickets for these plays are from £10 to £40.

The Japan Foundation is sponsoring a film programme of Japanese films inspired by actual events.
In London they will be screened at The ICA from the 6th to the 12th of February.
Tickets are £8 / £7 Concessions / £6 ICA Members.

The programme features six films

- A Chain of Islands (Dir: Kei Kumai, 1965)
- Live Today, Die Tomorrow! (Dir: Kaneto Shindo, 1970)
- Face (Dir: Junji Sakamoto, 2001)
- Chosyu Five (Dir: Sho Igarashi, 2006)
- Now, I… (Dir: Yasutomo Chikuma, 2007)
- Who’s Camus Anyway? (Dir: Mitsuo Yanagimachi, 2005)

The programme will also tour to four other venues in the UK during February and March 2009.
7 to 21 February 2009 – Watershed, Bristol
2 to 5 March 2009 -QFT, Belfast
9 to 19 March 2009 – Showroom, Sheffield
11 to 19 March 2009 – Filmhouse, Edinburgh

Throughout July the BFI Southbank London are showing classics of Japanese cinema in a season called Japanese Gems. 24 films by eight Kawakita Award-winning Japanese directors are showing.
The films include Ikuru by Kurosawa, Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill by Seijun Suzuki, and Onibaba by Kaneto Shindo.
The listings and details from BFI are better than anything I can provide.

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Late News (again!)
Tonight until the 10th of May Rouge28 Theatre is presenting a performance of Urashima Taro at Shunt Lounge in London. This is part of the celebrations of 150 years of relations between Japan and the UK, Japan-UK 150. (we’ll forget about the original circumstances though.)
There’s a video clip on Rouge28′s website and the life-size bunraku style puppetry looks very exciting.

I haven’t seen this play yet but Shunt is an amazing club. I’ve played there with Frank Chickens. It’s underneath London Bridge Train station and has the sort of ambience where you’d expect modern day vampires to congregate in it’s crypts!

I believe day membership covers you for the performance and any other events that may be on and there’s a late bar and usually DJ’s so you can make a night of it.

If you miss this at Shunt you can also catch them at the Sprint Festival at the Camden’s People Theatre from Monday 9th to Wednesday 11th of June at 8pm or the Buxton Puppet Festival on Thursday 31st of July at 9pm

You can read the story of Urashima Taro in English and Japanese here.
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There’s always some Japanese films at this festival.

This year it’s running from the 30th of April until the 4th of May, and these films are showing:
Dai Nipponjin
Vexille and an
Anime All Nighter (9 hours, 4 films, including Tekkonkinkreet and The Girl who Leapt Through Time)

All films are showing at the Apollo Cinema Regent Street.
Films are £10, the all-nighter is £25, booking details are here

There are goody bags with the Anime All Nighter, and before every screening T-shirts and DVDs are usually thrown into (at?) the audience.

I’d really like to see The Girl who Leapt Through Time but I don’t think I can do an all-nighter anymore. Maybe it’ll get a DVD release. . .

PolarC (aka BigHeadedMan, aka Chika-san) is dj at a club night in Life, Old Street on the 11 May. Interesting music is guaranteed. Chika-san had this to say in her flyer –
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