Yukio Ninagawa's Shintoku-Maru featuring Tatsuya Fujiwara
When
Feb 7, 2008 (Thursday) to
Feb 9, 2008 (Saturday)
Where
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
2700 F Street NW
Washington, DC 20566
Washington, DC 20566
38.896064
-77.055283
What
CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO CLIPS!RealPlayer is required. Download now"A dreamlike journey through a numinous underworld"--The IndependentU.S. PREMIERE!Yukio Ninagawa's Shin...
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Event details: Yukio Ninagawa's Shintoku-Maru featuring Tatsuya Fujiwara
Description
CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO CLIPS!
RealPlayer is required. Download now
"A dreamlike journey through a numinous underworld"
--The Independent
U.S. PREMIERE!
Yukio Ninagawa's Shintoku-Maru featuring Tatsuya Fujiwara
Renowned for his innovative interpretations of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, King Lear, and other classics, award-winning director Yukio Ninagawa has been called "one of the great image-makers of modern theater" (London's The Guardian).
For the festival, Ninagawa brings his tragic fable of love, lust, and revenge based on an ancient Japanese noh play written by Shuji Terayama and adapted by Rio Kishida. Blending drama, music, and spectacle, the production stars Tatsuya Fujiwara, one of Japan's hottest young actors known for movie roles ranging from Death Note to Battle Royale. Reprising his acclaimed, star-making performance from the London staging of Shintoku-Maru, Fujiwara portrays a young man haunted by the memory of his departed mother and strangely drawn to his new stepmother, portrayed by the magnetic Kayoko Shiraishi.
Performed in Japanese. English synopsis in the program and in pre-recorded narration by Alan Rickman before the performance. No intermission.
PLEASE NOTE: This performance contains nudity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shintoku-Maru
SYNOPSIS
(the following note will also be included in the programs)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In a crowded thoroughfare, Shintoku-Maru searches for memories of his late mother, whose picture he carries in his pocket. His father, bereft without a wife, decides to purchase a new mother for his family.
From a group of travelling players who have fallen on hard times, he chooses Nadeshiko. Shintoku is immediately attracted to her. With her own son, Sensaku, they all make a home together. However, Shintoku rejects his step-mother and the aging father refuses to treat her as his wife. Nadeshiko realizes she has been married only to provide domestic stability.
The family play a game of cards, in which he who collects a complete family (father, mother and children) is the winner. Thinking he is being deliberately ignored, Shintoku surrepititiously withholds the ‘mother' cards and leaves with them.
Nadeshiko goes to look for him and finds him playing with a long-horned beetle (in Japanese superstition, long-horn beetles were supposed to cut off women's hair). When she tries to comfort him in a motherly way, he rejects her and the pent-up anger between them explodes.
Shintoku meets a mask seller, who tells him that although he does not have a mask of his mother, he will lend him some magic: a black hole through which he can travel anywhere.
Shintoku travels to the underworld in search of his mother. There he finds many mothers looking for their children. Ships come and go with cargos of the dead, and the mothers grieve for the untimely deaths of their children. Shintoku longs to see his mother again, who, he reveals, died saving him from their burning home when he was a small boy. Suddenly his step-mother Nadeshiko appears and this seeming heaven turns into hell. Shintoku summons his long-horned beetle and the nightmare ends.
Two years pass. Nadeshiko is cleaning the house. She polishes the picture of Shintoku's mother with such vigor that the image vanishes. This enrages Shintoku, and in a fury he hits his step-mother. In an attempt to maintain the stability of the family, Shintoku's father orders him to obey, but he refuses.
Nadeshiko reappears with an effigy of Shintoku, on which she begins to place a curse because of his dislike for her--he will not even look at her. In the darkness, Shintoku mistakes her for his real mother and embraces her, telling her of his hatred for his step-mother. He realizes too late that it is Nadeshiko in his arms. In despair, Nadeshiko concludes her curse and Shintoku is blinded.
Over the next year Nadeshiko starts to lose her mind. Shintoku returns, disguised as Nadeshiko, and savagely assaults his step-brother. In a nightmarish sequence, the family home is symbolically destroyed and the father's health is broken. The strolling players return: their song is of the father and all he represented. (The players are wearing masks depicting seals which to the Japanese signify their rights as householders).
Nadeshiko finds Shintoku playing the family card game alone, wearing her kimono. They finally acknowledge their love for each other and he pleads with her to consummate this love, so that she may give birth to him, and hence become his real mother.
Together they disappear into the crowd, their destination unknown. JAPAN! culture + hyperculture is presented with the generous support of Presenting Underwriter the HRH Foundation and Presenting Sponsor Morgan Stanley.
ANA is the Official Airline of JAPAN! culture + hyperculture.
Additional support is provided by The Festival Honorary Committee, Aruze Corp., Amway Corporation, and Toyota.
International Programming is supported through the generosity of the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts.
RealPlayer is required. Download now
"A dreamlike journey through a numinous underworld"
--The Independent
U.S. PREMIERE!
Yukio Ninagawa's Shintoku-Maru featuring Tatsuya Fujiwara
Renowned for his innovative interpretations of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, King Lear, and other classics, award-winning director Yukio Ninagawa has been called "one of the great image-makers of modern theater" (London's The Guardian).
For the festival, Ninagawa brings his tragic fable of love, lust, and revenge based on an ancient Japanese noh play written by Shuji Terayama and adapted by Rio Kishida. Blending drama, music, and spectacle, the production stars Tatsuya Fujiwara, one of Japan's hottest young actors known for movie roles ranging from Death Note to Battle Royale. Reprising his acclaimed, star-making performance from the London staging of Shintoku-Maru, Fujiwara portrays a young man haunted by the memory of his departed mother and strangely drawn to his new stepmother, portrayed by the magnetic Kayoko Shiraishi.
Performed in Japanese. English synopsis in the program and in pre-recorded narration by Alan Rickman before the performance. No intermission.
PLEASE NOTE: This performance contains nudity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shintoku-Maru
SYNOPSIS
(the following note will also be included in the programs)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In a crowded thoroughfare, Shintoku-Maru searches for memories of his late mother, whose picture he carries in his pocket. His father, bereft without a wife, decides to purchase a new mother for his family.
From a group of travelling players who have fallen on hard times, he chooses Nadeshiko. Shintoku is immediately attracted to her. With her own son, Sensaku, they all make a home together. However, Shintoku rejects his step-mother and the aging father refuses to treat her as his wife. Nadeshiko realizes she has been married only to provide domestic stability.
The family play a game of cards, in which he who collects a complete family (father, mother and children) is the winner. Thinking he is being deliberately ignored, Shintoku surrepititiously withholds the ‘mother' cards and leaves with them.
Nadeshiko goes to look for him and finds him playing with a long-horned beetle (in Japanese superstition, long-horn beetles were supposed to cut off women's hair). When she tries to comfort him in a motherly way, he rejects her and the pent-up anger between them explodes.
Shintoku meets a mask seller, who tells him that although he does not have a mask of his mother, he will lend him some magic: a black hole through which he can travel anywhere.
Shintoku travels to the underworld in search of his mother. There he finds many mothers looking for their children. Ships come and go with cargos of the dead, and the mothers grieve for the untimely deaths of their children. Shintoku longs to see his mother again, who, he reveals, died saving him from their burning home when he was a small boy. Suddenly his step-mother Nadeshiko appears and this seeming heaven turns into hell. Shintoku summons his long-horned beetle and the nightmare ends.
Two years pass. Nadeshiko is cleaning the house. She polishes the picture of Shintoku's mother with such vigor that the image vanishes. This enrages Shintoku, and in a fury he hits his step-mother. In an attempt to maintain the stability of the family, Shintoku's father orders him to obey, but he refuses.
Nadeshiko reappears with an effigy of Shintoku, on which she begins to place a curse because of his dislike for her--he will not even look at her. In the darkness, Shintoku mistakes her for his real mother and embraces her, telling her of his hatred for his step-mother. He realizes too late that it is Nadeshiko in his arms. In despair, Nadeshiko concludes her curse and Shintoku is blinded.
Over the next year Nadeshiko starts to lose her mind. Shintoku returns, disguised as Nadeshiko, and savagely assaults his step-brother. In a nightmarish sequence, the family home is symbolically destroyed and the father's health is broken. The strolling players return: their song is of the father and all he represented. (The players are wearing masks depicting seals which to the Japanese signify their rights as householders).
Nadeshiko finds Shintoku playing the family card game alone, wearing her kimono. They finally acknowledge their love for each other and he pleads with her to consummate this love, so that she may give birth to him, and hence become his real mother.
Together they disappear into the crowd, their destination unknown. JAPAN! culture + hyperculture is presented with the generous support of Presenting Underwriter the HRH Foundation and Presenting Sponsor Morgan Stanley.
ANA is the Official Airline of JAPAN! culture + hyperculture.
Additional support is provided by The Festival Honorary Committee, Aruze Corp., Amway Corporation, and Toyota.
International Programming is supported through the generosity of the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts.
Cost
$15.00More about John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
The Kennedy Center, located on the banks of the Potomac River near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., opened to the public in September 1971. But its roots date back to 1958, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed bipartisan legislation creating a National Cultural Center. To honor Eisenhower's vision for such a facility, one of the Kennedy Center's theaters is named for him. The National Cultural Center Act included four basic components: it authorized the Center's construction, spelled out an artistic mandate to present a wide variety of both classical and contemporary performances, specified an educational mission for the Center, and stated that the Center was to be an independent facility, self-sustaining and privately funded. As a result of this last stipulation, a mammoth fundraising campaign began immediately following the Act's passage into law. President John F. Kennedy was a lifelong supporter and advocate of the arts, and frequently steered the public discourse toward what he called "our contribution to the human spirit." Kennedy took the lead in raising funds for the new National Cultural Center, holding special White House luncheons and receptions, appointing his wife Jacqueline and Mrs. Eisenhower as honorary co-chairwomen, and in other ways placing the prestige of his office firmly behind the endeavor. President Kennedy also attracted to the project the man who would become the Center's guiding light for nearly three decades. By the time Kennedy appointed him as chairman of the Center in 1961, Roger L. Stevens had already achieved spectacular success in real estate (i.e. negotiating the sale of the Empire State Building in 1951), politics, fundraising, and the arts; as a theatrical producer, he had brought West Side Story, A Man for All Seasons, and Bus Stop to the stage. Over the next 30 years, Stevens would oversee the Center's construction, then would shepherd it to prominence as a crucible for the best in music, dance, and theater. Two months after President Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, Congress designated the National Cultural Center (designed by Edward Durell Stone) as a "living memorial" to Kennedy, and authorized $23 million to help build what was now known as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Fundraising continued at a swift pace--with much help coming from the Friends of the Kennedy Center volunteers, who fanned out across the nation to attract private support [View profiles of Friends/Volunteers Founding members]--and nations around the world began donating funds, building materials, and artworks to assist in the project's completion. In December 1965, President Lyndon Johnson turned the first shovelful of earth at the Center's construction site, using the same gold-plated spade that had been used in the groundbreaking ceremonies for both the Lincoln Memorial in 1914 and the Jefferson Memorial in 1938. From its very beginnings, the Kennedy Center has represented a unique public/private partnership. As the nation's living memorial to President Kennedy, the Center receives federal funding each year to pay for maintenance and operation of the building, a federal facility. However, the Center's artistic programs and education and outreach initiatives are paid for almost entirely through ticket sales and gifts from individuals, corporations, and private foundations. The Center made its public debut on September 8, 1971, with a gala opening performance featuring the world premiere of a Requiem mass honoring President Kennedy, a work commissioned from the legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. The occasion enabled Washington to begin earning a reputation as a cultural hub as well as a political one; as The New York Times wrote in a front-page article the next morning, "The capital of this nation finally strode into the cultural age tonight with the spectacular opening of the $70 million Kennedy Center...a gigantic marble temple to music, dance, and drama on the Potomac's edge." Phone: (800) 444-1324View all John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts events
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