The 1980 premiere of Yukio Ninagawa’s “legendarily beautiful” Japanese-language production of Macbeth (Independent, U.K.) was a watershed moment in global theater.
Transposing Shakespeare’s tragedy from medieval Scotland to feudal Japan, Ninagawa created a breathtaking world filled with samurai, kabuki witches, a highly expressive cherry tree, and a moving musical score of Buddhist chant and western classical music.
This revival, the last production overseen by Ninagawa before his death in 2016, transforms the Bard’s brutal tale of greed, ambition, and revenge into a poetic meditation on the ephemeral nature of existence.
