The Rt Hon Tony Blair, MP
The RSC has performed in Japan many times in its history but few productions have been as exciting as this very special international co-production of King Lear. Some of the most important benefits of touring overseas are the relationships which sometimes spring up between international artists. I have had the opportunity of seeing Ninagawa's work both here and in Japan. He is one of the world's finest classical directors and a consummate Shakespearean. His production of King Lear is one I have looked forward to for a long time. Although Shakespeare is an English dramatist, his work truly transcends frontiers, absorbing interpretation from many different cultural perspectives. I am convinced that this production, combining the best of British and Japanese talent, will unlock and expand our understanding of human emotions.
Adrian Noble Artistic Director, R5C
In his own language Yukio Ninagawa's contributions to the works of William Shakespeare have been internationally acknowledged, and our company has been privileged to be part of his endeavours now for more than a decade. The Royal Shakespeare Company continues to be the brightest jewel in our theatre's classical crown, and it is fitting that this millennium production, Ninagawa's first Shakespeare to be performed in the English language, should be with the RSC, led by one of our greatest actors, Nigel Hawthorne.
In a world in which miracles are becoming increasingly rare, it is an inspiring, if somewhat awesome, experience to find ourselves part of one. There are, however, no miracles without miracle makers, and Mr Yoshihiko Tsuchiya, Governor of Saitama Prefecture, and Mr Makoto Moroi, President and General Director of Arts at the Saitama Arts Foundation, have been the miracle-makers for Yukio Ninagawa, myself and all our Japanese and English colleagues. With the help of Mrs Miyako Kanamori of HoriPro Inc and Mr Tadao Nakane at Point Tokyo Co Ltd, they managed by some form of sorcery beyond our grasp to persuade their funding bodies in Japan to fund what has been a massive undertaking, and we on our part have given them our best.
The company left for Japan in August with nothing but high hopes and an understandable amount of trepidation. We have returned with a production. The process has been heartwarming. The barriers we have broken down, the bridges we have built, will survive long after the production has become a fond memory.
Tbelma Holt, CBE Producer
It is a great honour to be able to realize an international co-production with the Royal Shakespeare Company. King Lear is the fourth of Shakespeare's plays to be mounted under the direction of Mr Ninagawa, and the collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company has been a dream since we began our artistic association two years ago. However, none of us expected that it would come to fruition so early. Together with Mr Ninagawa, I would like to express our greatest gratitude to all who helped to enable this project to be realized, especially Ms Thelma Holt, without whose devotion it could not have happened.
I consider that our mission as a regional theatre is to offer a new artistic home to world-wide creators where they can mount new pieces in a nourishing environment. It couldn't have happened without the generous understanding and enthusiastic support of Mr Yoshihiko Tsuchiya, Governor of Saitama Prefecture. His energy has inspired and activated us. I hope this force will be conveyed to those in London and Stratford who see our King Lear.
We have proved that we can overcome cultural differences and that we can work together as artists with only one aim in view: a high standard of work. It has been the most sensational and also the most rewarding project in five years' history of our theatre. It is my wish that it might be the beginning of an exciting collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Company and ourselves.
Please enjoy the performance today
Makoto Moroi
President and General Director of Arts,
Saitama Arts Foundation,
Director General, Saitama Arts Theater
We are delighted and honoured to have been given the opportunity to take part in this international co-production of King Lear with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Saitama Arts Theater, together with Thelma Holt Ltd and Point Tokyo Co Ltd.
I can still remember the excitement we all felt on the day when Mr Yukio Ninagawa, Japan's foremost director, and his staff gathered to welcome the company from Britain in Japanese mid-summer. A collaboration between the two countries with completely different cultures meant, inevitably, that there were new discoveries every day for everyone. The trust we have established between us in the last two months is based upon our mutual respect for each other as artists. Rehearsals went smoothly and an atmosphere of excitement prevailed throughout the rehearsal room. The result of this process is the King Lear you see today.
We feel that this production is worthy of the time when we are about to sum up the twentieth century and enter into the new millennium. We hope you will enjoy our King Lear.
This is HoriPro's second visit to Britain, following the Shintoku-Maru at the Barbican Theatre in 1997. We very much hope that this is a first step towards a long-lasting collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Company and ourselves. I would like to take this opportunity to offer our most sincere thanks to all those who have supported this projcct.
Takeo Hori
Executive Producer, Chairman of the Board and CEO, HoriPro Inc
The set for Ninagawa's King Lear is a space inspired by the noh stage, noh being a form of Japanese classical theatre. The format of the noh stage was perfected as an 'empty space' in the fifteenth century - long before Peter Brook - and it continues to be a fundamental and defining influence on contemporary Japanese theatre.
However, Ninagawas setting of King Lear is not a real noh stage in the traditional sense. It is his version of the 'empty space', the basic structure of which is inspired by the noh stage.
The most important element of noh theatre that has been employed by Ninagawa is the relief of a giant old pine tree. In noh theatre, this pine tree, placed prominently centre-stage, is called 'kagami-ita (literally, a 'mirror board') and it is the principal and most important element of the noh stage. It symbolically reflects the world, while the pine itself signifies eternal life and eternity. Together they signify the cycle of life in this world, and perhaps the next. The pine leaves remain green throughout the four seasons, and the tree appears to be several hundred years old.
In the noh theatre, props are mere representations and are ideally reduced and simplified to a minimum. All is left ambiguous so that the actors are neither living beings from this world with physical identity, nor illusions wandering between this world and the next. They relate the stories of life and death in front of the old pine tree.
However, for this production there is an exciting new element - the performers are actors from the RSC, speaking in their mother-tongue. The reality on stage is a modern European reality, and it adds a hitherto unexplored dimension which intrigues Ninagawa, and inspired his conception of this production.
The modem realism of Western Europe is seen inside an 'empty space', a space which originally housed a strong view of a world conceived in medieval Japan.
The director who gave us the Ninagawa Macbeth has now given us the Ninagawa Lear.
