Although most famous abroad for his touring productions of European classics, Ninagawa also directed works based on contemporary writing from Japan, including the Modern Noh plays of Yukio Mishima (which toured to New York's Lincoln Center in early summer 2005) and several other plays by Japanese dramatists, including Shūji Terayama and Kunio Shimizu. His production of Titus Andronicus was performed in England in June 2006, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford and the Theatre Royal in Plymouth. In 2007 his company participated in the Barbican International Theatre Event (BITE) series at the Barbican Arts Centre in London, with their production of Coriolanus.
Biography
In 1955 Ninagawa first joined theatre company "Seihai" (‘young actors’). In 1967 he left the group and set up his own theatre company, "Gendaijin-Gekijo" (‘modern people's theatre’). He made his debut as a director in 1969 with Shinjo afururu keihakusa (‘genuine frivolity’?). After the disbandment of “Gendaijin-Gekijo” in 1971, in the following year he established a new theatre company called "Sakura-sha" ('cherry blossom company'), which once again resulted in disbandment three years later, 1974.
At the same time, the year 1974 has become the turning point for Ninagawa, when the then Toho theatre producer Tadao Nakane invited him to direct larger productions, and as a result he came to work on a Shakespeare play for the very first time - Romeo and Juliet. Since then, he has become one of the most[citation needed] feted directors in the theatre world. In 1998 he vowed to direct all of Shakespeare's works, and in the year 2000 he directed the mammoth Greeks, a performance lasting for a total of ten and a half hours.
Beginning in 1983 when he directed Medea, Ninagawa continued to do overseas tours every year, adding to his high reputation in Europe, the US and Canada. He was invited to present a play each year in London, for three years in a row – Midsummer Night's Dream in 1996, Shintokumaru (name of the male protagonist) in 1997, and Hamlet in 1998. In addition he collaborated with the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1999 to 2000 and presented King Lear at London and Stratford-upon-Avon.
Ninagawa won many awards in Japan, and he was awarded honorary doctorates in the UK by the University of Edinburgh (1992) and Plymouth University (2009). He is the father of the photographer and film director Mika Ninagawa.
In his theatrical company Ninagawa Studio (Ninagawa Company), he continued to produce experimental productions with young people. In 2006, he founded a new theatrical group for people over 55 years old called "Saitama Gold Theatre" which is based at Saitama Arts Theatre.[note 1]
Ninagawa died of pneumonia at a hospital in Tokyo on May 12, 2016, aged 80.[1]
Stage direction history
(Premier dates only)
1969 Nayameru kamigami wa, saredo shuppatsu shi tamawazu (悩める神々は、されど出発し給わず) - by Toshiro Ishido
1969 Shinjo afururu keihakusa (真情あふるる軽薄さ) - by Kunio Shimizu
1970 Ashita sokoni hana o sasouyo (明日そこに花を挿そうよ) - by Kunio Shimizu
1970 Omoide no Nihon ichiman-nen (想い出の日本一萬年) - by Kunio Shimizu
1971 Tōkaidō Yotsuya Kaidan (東海道四谷怪談) - by Nanboku Tsuruya IV
1971 Karasu yo, oretachi wa dangan o komeru (鴉よ、おれたちは弾丸をこめる) - by Kunio Shimizu
1972 Bokura ga hijo no taiga o kudaru toki (ぼくらが非情の大河をくだる時) - by Kunio Shimizu
1973 Moudouken (盲導犬) - by Juro Kara
1973 Nakanai noka? Nakanai noka 1973-nen no tameni? (泣かないのか？泣かないのか1973年のために？) - by Kunio Shimizu
^Tango at the End of Winter by Shimizu, Barnes, Amber Lane Plays 1991, ISBN978-1-872868-05-9
Further reading
Books
Hanratty, Conor (2021). 'Shakespeare in the Theatre: Yukio Ninagawa'. London: The Arden Shakespeare. ISBN9781350239463.
Horowitz, Arthur (2004). Prospero's "True Preservers": Peter Brook, Yukio Ninagawa, and Giorgio Strehler - Twentieth-Century Directors Approach Shakespeare's The Tempest. Newark: U of Delaware P. ISBN0-87413-854-X.
Ryuta Minami; Ian Carruthers; John Gillies, eds. (2001). "Interview with Ninagawa Yukio". Performing Shakespeare in Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. pp. 208–219. ISBN0-521-78244-9.
Kishi, Tetsuo (1998). "Japanese Shakespeare and English Reviewers". In Takashi Sasayama; J. R. Mulryne; Margaret Shewring (eds.). Shakespeare and the Japanese Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. pp. 110–123. ISBN0-521-47043-9.
Mulryne, J. R. (1992). "From Text to Foreign Stage: Yukio Ninagawa's Cultural Translation of Macbeth". In Patricia Kennan; Mariangela Tempera (eds.). Shakespeare from Text to Stage. Bologna: Clueb. pp. 131–143. ISBN88-8091-131-7.
Pronko, Leonard C. (1996). "Approaching Shakespeare through Kabuki". In Minoru Fujita; Leonard Pronko (eds.). Shakespeare: East and West. Surrey: Japan Lib. pp. 23–40. ISBN0-312-16145-X.
Maria M. Delgado; Paul Heritage, eds. (1996). "Yukio Ninagawa". In Contact With Gods?: Directors Talk Theatre. Manchester: Manchester UP. pp. 191–200. ISBN0-7190-4762-5.
Articles
Hanratty, Conor (2007). ""What Ninagawa did next" - Notes on Productions of Greek Tragedy by Yukio Ninagawa after Medea in 1999". Staging of Classical Drama around 2000, eds. Pavlína N. Sípová and Alena Sarkissian: 7–30.
Im, Yeeyon (2004). "The Pitfalls of Intercultural Discourse: The Case of Yukio Ninagawa". Shakespeare Bulletin. 22 (4): 7–30.
Kennedy, Dennis (1995). "Shakespeare and the Global Spectator". Shakespeare Jahrbuch. 131: 50–64.
Lamont, Rosette C. (1990). "Foreign Shakespeare". Stages. 5 (1): 5–7.
