Shakespeare in the Theatre: Satoshi Miyagi

Drawing on interview material, current scholarship and documents from the Ku Na'uka and SPAC archives, this book is the first major appraisal of Miyagi's 30-year career as one of Japan's leading directors of Shakespeare. It provides an in-depth critique of Miyagi's approach to directing Shakespeare through studies of his highly visual and physical renditions of Hamlet (1990/2008/2021), Macbeth (2001), Othello (2005/2018), A Midsummer Night's Dream (2011) and The Winter's Tale (2016). The book also discusses recent shifts in Miyagi's direction as a result of the global pandemic, and includes interviews with Miyagi, Micari (lead actress and long-time collaborator), and Hiroko Tanakawa (Miyagi's music director), making it a valuable resource for anyone interested in contemporary Japanese theatre and Shakespeare. Satoshi Miyagi (1959-) rose to prominence in Japanese theatre in the early 1990s with a series of visually striking adaptations of classical European and Asian plays. This study examines how, working with his Tokyo based Ku Na'uka Theatre Company, he developed his renowned 'mover/speaker' acting method as a means of exploring the non-linguistic aspects of theatre. It details how, in 2007, he replaced Tadashi Suzuki as the artistic director of the Shizuoka Performing Arts Centre (SPAC), where he set to work on what he terms 'the restoration of poetry' and 'weak theatre,' in sum an aesthetics that challenges the privileging of masculinity in East/West theatre traditions. Shakespeare in the Theatre: Satoshi Miyagi demonstrates how Miyagi's productions have toured worldwide to great acclaim, earning him the reputation of a director capable of shedding new light on intercultural theatre, Shakespeare and gender, and the power of language.