Backstage on stage - a sharp opening to a stunning spectacle
The Ninagawa Company present their pre-show rituals in full view of the Barbican's largely Japanese audience, the cast thereby sharing their humanity but also reminding the spectator that beneath the apparently nonchalant yet beautiful rehearsal kimonos reside some of William Shakespeare's less well encountered characters prepping to take the stage and play the contrived and up-beat tale of Cymbeline.
The Ninagawa Company present their pre-show rituals in full view of the Barbican's largely Japanese audience, the cast thereby sharing their humanity but also reminding the spectator that beneath the apparently nonchalant yet beautiful rehearsal kimonos reside some of William Shakespeare's less well encountered characters prepping to take the stage and play the contrived and up-beat tale of Cymbeline.
A sudden shedding of the actors' dressing room attire and a most warming welcome bow as the company in full period costume assemble front of stage, counted as one of the strongest moments of the play, which ran for over three hours filled with much passion, stunning scenery, live and recorded sound and music, but also much appreciated comic relief moments from the likes of Cloten and Pisanio, without which the plot may have been lost to the drawn out dramatic pauses, the sometimes loud and exaggerated interpretations of joy, anger, happiness and fear - a lot like human renditions of on screen caricatural Japanese TV animations from the 90ies. This impression might have also been attributable to the fact that the lead actors playing Posthumus (Hiroshi Abe) and Imogen (Shinobu Otake) are exceptional TV and film actors.
There was an admirable marrying of Japanese and western culture by means of mixing scenic decors providing a haunting sense that Shakespeare's masterpiece is far from tainted by inter-cultural differences and language. Through the humanity of the piece and the players, Shakespeare pierces through the taboos set by society: Shakespeare truly is universal.
As a spectacle Ninagawa's stage directions are lively and very much, it seems, inspired by some of the work of the RSC and, in particular, two immensely beautiful and skilfully achieved "slow motion" sequences: one of war and one of celebration - demonstrating the agility of the actors as a company of players in intense moments of heightened emotion and tension to convey the meanings underlying the text with beauty, clarity and complete truth.
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